


Purposely Physical

by Celianna



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M, Smut, momokai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 05:13:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celianna/pseuds/Celianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Momoshiro and Kaidoh sure get physical a lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Physical

**Author's Note:**

> Rating for swearing, and smut in chapters 3 and 4. This is my take on how MomoKai could plausibly happen in canon, and it spans several years. It started out as a one-shot, but became my longest MomoKai fic. More MomoKai can be found under my name.

They always do this, whether due to stress, due to genuine happiness, or simply because they hated each other’s guts; Momoshiro would always try to pick a fight with Kaidoh, and Kaidoh would happily oblige. Though lately, it’s been getting more ... aggressive. They used to have senpais who would stop them from beating each other up too much, they drew the line. Without them, Momoshiro and Kaidoh have no line to tell them when to stop, and such it continues.

Momoshiro twirls his fingers around Kaidoh’s jacket, clenching it tightly, and then he pulls the snake close to him to give him a headbutt. Their foreheads crash into each other, and he hears his rival yelp in pain while he grins in satisfaction. Kaidoh of course, has to retaliate, and manages to trip Momoshiro when he’s too distracted looking at the way Kaidoh’s bandana is all disheveled on his head; it could slip off any moment now. Then they’re in the dirt, still pulling on each other’s jackets, and Momoshiro yanks Kaidoh’s bandana off of his head.

“Asshole, give that back!” he yells.

Momoshiro smirks, then runs the bandana through his fingers, taunting Kaidoh. “Make me.”

Kaidoh places both of his hands on Momoshiro’s chest, pushing him down towards the ground, and he climbs over him, temporarily stunning Momoshiro as Kaidoh’s jacket grazes his nose. He reaches for Momoshiro’s hand, which is stretched out behind him—as far as he could stretch, and Kaidoh attempts to grab at it, while still firmly putting weight on Momoshiro’s chest. It’s getting a bit harder to breath now, especially since Kaidoh weighs a ton, and the jacket was obstructing him from taking in any oxygen. Damn that Kaidoh, what the hell does he eat, and when did he become so strong? Momoshiro punches him in his side, which causes Kaidoh to move a bit, but he’s still on top of him, trying to get his bandana back. He vaguely contemplates just handing it back to him, but it’s much more fun teasing him. Kaidoh moves forwards.

And then Kaidoh’s knee ends up in between his crotch, Momoshiro barely has time to react when he feels the impact.

“Oww!” cries Momoshiro because of the sudden pain in his balls. He flies upright, to cup his precious jewels, and then bumps his head into Kaidoh’s as well, managing to knock him off, and now they’re both on the ground groaning and writhing in pain, each for different reasons.

“Watch where your knee ends up at, you idiot!” yells Momoshiro in a squeaky voice. He’s desperately grabbing onto his balls, and he’s all curled up in the fetal position. It hurts, it hurts!

“You deserved that, dumbass, for stealing my bandana!” Kaidoh yells back.

“But, the balls, man! _The balls!_ You don’t hit a guy there! Owww,” whines Momoshiro.

Kaidoh finally gets up, then staggers towards Momoshiro, bends down and grabs the bandana that’s lying in the dirt. Yeah, leave Momoshiro on the ground who is writhing in pain, and pick up the fucking _bandana_ , what a vicious emotionless bastard. Momoshiro tries to shoot Kaidoh an ugly look, but he’s sure he looks positively stupid when he’s grimacing in pain instead.

When Kaidoh inspects his bandana, he sees that it is now covered in dirt, and Kaidoh is not happy. _Not. Happy._ He steps close to Momoshiro, his body standing tall before him, Momoshiro looks up at him and tries to act as a desperate puppy that’s in pain, and hopes it works, because he wouldn’t be able to defend himself when he’s already down. But Kaidoh wouldn’t do that, would he? Kick him when he’s down? Momoshiro looks at Kaidoh’s frightening glare, and then thinks that he wouldn’t put it past him. He sees Kaidoh taking his hand out of his pocket, and now he knows for sure he’s gonna sock one to him.

Kaidoh holds out his stretched out hand in front of Momoshiro. “Get up, lazyass, stop pretending it hurts.”

Momoshiro wishes he could spew fire from his eyes so that he could burn Kaidoh. And his stupid bandana. Laser beams would work too.

“I’m not pretending,” he protests, because it really _does_ hurt. He still feels the sharp pain tingling down there, and it makes him wobbly, so he grits his teeth and grabs Kaidoh’s hand. The snake pulls him to his feet, and they’re face to face again. And dirty, not to mention that.

Momoshiro shakes Kaidoh’s hand off, then mumbles something under his breath, and stomps away. Stupid snake, he’ll get him back for that next time.

 

**oOo**

Kaidoh tries to trip him again, because he loves doing that for some reason. Perhaps he’s got a fetish for bringing Momoshiro down to the ground where he can tower over him and reign in his supreme dominance over him. Not that Momoshiro would ever allow that or something, especially not now, or that Kaidoh ever held some sort of dominance over him. So Momoshiro pulls one over on him, and gives him a very forceful shove so that Kaidoh stumbles backwards and trips over his own clumsy feet. Momoshiro’s smiling broadly when he sees the snake go down, and then he yelps out loud when Kaidoh grabs his shirt, dragging him down with him. They’re on the ground, and Momoshiro’s elbows are jabbing into Kaidoh’s side, and Kaidoh’s knee is riding up his ass—and it’s not comfortable, _not comfortable._

It takes him two seconds to realize—right after noticing Kaidoh’s knee—that his lips were touching something squishy and soft. Momoshiro blinks a few times, and realizes his lips are on Kaidoh’s cheek. His left cheek to be exact, right underneath his cheekbone. He notices the stubbles of Kaidoh’s growing beard, and it prickles against his lips. He wonders if he should buy him a razor. Kaidoh then finally shoves Momoshiro off of him, having amazing strength in just one arm to throw off Momoshiro.

“Fshuuu, disgusting!” says Kaidoh. He then wipes his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket, rubbing at it angrily.

Immediately on the defense mode, Momoshiro glares at Kaidoh. “That’s my line!” he says, and then he rubs at his own lips as well. Right now, he really wishes he could shoot laser beams from his eyes to burn Kaidoh to the ground. And burn out the memory from his mind of having kissed his nasty, squishy, stubby red cheek.

Kaidoh rubs his cheek faster when he sees Momoshiro wipe at his lips. Momoshiro narrows his eyes, and rubs harder at his lips. Then they’re in a rubbing contest, each rubbing away more furious than the other, they couldn’t possibly lose to one another at ... at ... _rubbing_. Or something like that. Momoshiro doesn’t care. He cares about Kaidoh’s squishy cheek, the spot right below his cheekbone, and how he needs to buy a bottle of bleach when he goes home after practice and chug it all down to flush out the dreaded memory.

Kaidoh finally turns around after rubbing his cheek until it was bright red, and sulks away. Momoshiro wishes he could burn a hole in the back of his jacket with laser beams. He then rubs at his lips some more.

He wonders how much razors cost.

 

**oOo**

Kaidoh loves to trip Momoshiro, and Momoshiro loves to give headbutts. So Kaidoh is grabbing onto Momoshiro’s jacket, trying to throw him off balance, and Momoshiro is getting ready to give him one nasty headbutt. Things somehow go wrong at the right time, because when Kaidoh pulls, Momoshiro is already putting in a lot of force, and then Kaidoh looks up, wondering why there is no resistance. They’re locked together. They stand still for a couple of seconds, their eyes wide and breathing harshly in each other’s faces.

Kaidoh’s brown eyes are looking cross-eyed at his own, and it would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that it was completely mortifying. Momoshiro can hardly process the information, in fact, his brain has pretty much shut down, so it takes Kaidoh shoving him away to get it back up and running again. Then a blush creeps across his cheeks and he angrily glares at Kaidoh, already blaming it all on him.

“Damnit, Mamushi!” Momoshiro yells from embarrassment.

Kaidoh is already furiously rubbing at his lips, and spitting out some saliva each time his hand leaves his ugly and stubby face.

“Dumbass Momoshiro!” Kaidoh yells back.

Momoshiro furiously rubs at his lips as well, and his eyes finally dart away from Kaidoh, because now he can’t stop picturing how just moments ago, their lips were touching. Both boys turn their back on one another, and they walk away, each rubbing at their lips. Momoshiro fails to see that he wasn’t the only one with red cheeks.

That didn’t count as a kiss, did it? Momoshiro admits, he has never kissed a girl before—let alone getting kissed by a _guy_ , but did it really count as a kiss? It was an accidental bump, and their lips just happened to cushion the blow. It was a mere coincidence that they happened to end up in that position, so it can’t count as a kiss, right? A kiss is with a pretty little girl who is standing on the tip of her toes to reach you, and then you smile and lean down and give her a kiss that makes your stomach fill up with butterflies.

It was not supposed to be an accidental bump with the ugliest guy on earth who had very thick and chapped and squishy and soft lips, that made him feel as if he downed a bunch of poison that’s rotting in his stomach. Definitely not.

Momoshiro rubs at his lips again, he’s been doing it all day since he left practice. He’s also been avoiding Kaidoh all day, which is easy, because it’s not like they’re friends or anything and see each other after school. Thank god for that. He wonders if Kaidoh is thinking about it too. For some reason, that makes him feel queasy and restless, so Momoshiro rubs at his lips again.

He wonders if he should buy Kaidoh chapstick.

 

**oOo**

The incident didn’t stop him from picking another fight with Kaidoh. In fact, there was a silent agreement between the both of them to kick the living shit out of each other, in the hopes of burying the memory as much as they could. Which is why he’s holding Kaidoh in a headlock, right under his armpit, his arms snaked around his neck. Momoshiro grins and Kaidoh flails around with his long arms, trying to get out of it.

“What’s wrong, Mamushi, can’t get free?” he mocks him.

“You bastard ... fshuuuu.” Kaidoh’s breathing heavily, and then in the blink of an eye, he has thrown Momoshiro on the ground, judo-style.

“Yaargh!” Momoshiro’s back hurts like a bitch, and he moans in pain, his eyes squeezed shut. When the hell did that snake learn such a move? He’s gotta know where he’s learning these things from, damnit!

“You’re 100 years too early to defeat me,” says Kaidoh, who is looming over him in triumph.

Except of course, Momoshiro can’t accept such defeat, and then stretches out his hand to grab Kaidoh’s ankle, he pulls it towards him. The tall boy loses his balance and falls on his behind, and now Momoshiro’s head is in between Kaidoh’s legs, and he’s having a really unpleasant view of his ... Momoshiro’s head is kicked by Kaidoh’s foot before the image is permanently burned in his mind, and he’s sort of happy he did. He’s not going to let him get away with kicking him in the head though, so now he’s up and on top of Kaidoh, holding his wrists and pressing his knee down on the boy’s chest.

“Get off me, asshole!” he growls. He tries to wriggle himself free, but Momoshiro knows that he’s got more strength than Kaidoh, and he happily continues to hold him down.

“What’s that, I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over my awesomeness.” Momoshiro then proves his superiority by straddling Kaidoh at his waist, and sits on top of him, dominating him. That gives him a kick, to see Kaidoh so defensively below him, unable to throw him off. Serves him right, that stubby and chapped-lipped bastard.

“You ...” Momoshiro doesn’t get to hear what curse word Kaidoh had in mind, because Kaidoh raises his body with tremendous speed, and their heads crash against each other.

Momoshiro immediately releases him, and is rolling around on the ground in agony—that heatbutt hurt like hell! More than his own! Kaidoh is a little ways across him, also moaning in pain, because heatbutts go both ways, and that makes Momoshiro feel a little bit better. Just a little. He rubs his forehead, then stops to look over at Kaidoh, who was doing the exact same thing. For some reason, Kaidoh is straining his eyes at him, perhaps he’s thinking that he can shoot laser beams too? He glares back, and Kaidoh hisses, and he growls—and then they’re at it again.

They roll over each other back and forth, jabs, stabs and punches are dealt continuously, there was really no end to it. Somewhere in the background, Echizen sighs loudly and leaves the tennis field, along with a bunch of other tennis members. Momoshiro and Kaidoh pay absolutely zero attention to them, giving absolutely no fuck to anyone else, as they're too busy trying to rip each other’s clothes off.

Not like that stood for some kind of hidden meaning or anything, Momoshiro simply wants to tear Kaidoh apart. Starting at his clothes, which looked ugly on him anyway. Though his regular clothes weren’t much better. His fingers tighten around Kaidoh’s collar, and he pulls at it, the jacket quickly sliding off of his shoulder, and exposing some of his skin. Kaidoh’s doing the same, and manages to completely rid Momoshiro of his jacket, and smirks at it when he’s the first one to do it. As if he’s won or something, topped him, bested him. Momoshiro pulls his face into a scowl, then gets on top of Kaidoh once more and tries to get him out of his jacket, while Kaidoh’s furiously pushing Momoshiro away.

They wrestle and it’s getting a bit harder to breathe now, Momoshiro notes. He doesn’t fail to notice either that Kaidoh’s the same, his infamous stamina is running out and he’s sweating too. And then the jacket is off, clutched in his hands, and he’s still on top of him, breathing heavily and sweating—same goes for Kaidoh. They stare at each other for a while, maybe because they’re thinking that they ruined their regular jackets forever now, or maybe because they don’t really know why they were fighting in the first place. Or perhaps they wondered why the fight even took this long, and why no one stopped them. Momoshiro narrows his eyes at Kaidoh; it’s all his fault for indulging him in his antics that it got to this point.

Kaidoh finally has enough of Momoshiro dominating him, and flings him off of him, and now they’re lying next to each other, still panting. Momoshiro stares at the blue sky.

“I forgot why we were fighting,” he says after taking a large breath.

Kaidoh huffs. “It’s because you’re an idiot, dumbass.”

“Who’s the dumbass, dumbass!?” yells Momoshiro as he turns his face towards Kaidoh.

“You’re the dumbass, you fucking idiot,” he yells back, also facing Momoshiro now.

They grit their teeth at each other, and Momoshiro wonders if they’re going to be fighting again—was there really no end to it? Then again, he likes pissing Kaidoh off, that’s his hobby or something, so he baits him.

“The only dumbass I see is right in front of my eyes!”

Now Kaidoh’s the one on top of him, and he has his hands wrapped around Momoshiro’s throat, strangling him. Momoshiro gasps for air, but he’s laughing as well—he can feel absolutely no murderous intent behind his actions. This pisses the snake off even more; how _dare_ Momoshiro laugh at him. He squeezes tighter, and Momoshiro stops  laughing, it’s honestly getting a bit harder to breathe, but he stares steadfast into Kaidoh’s eyes. Unwavering, determined, and most of all, he’s not going to back down. He’s not intimated by him; no way would Kaidoh actually harm him. There is just _no_ way. And Kaidoh knows it too, because his face says it all, and the grip on his throat loosens. Momoshiro starts laughing again when his hands leave his throat, and Kaidoh raises his arm, his hand pulled into a fist.

Momoshiro’s eyes grow large and then he squeezes them shut and prepares himself for the impact which never comes. But Kaidoh has moved, he knows he has, because their chests are touching, and he can feel Kaidoh’s hair brushing against his forehead. Kaidoh’s breath hits his face like a heat wave; it’s so close it’s nauseating. Momoshiro digs his fingers into the dirt, and his eyes fly open while his heart jumps up and down in his chest. Kaidoh’s lips are pressed against his, and they’re chapped, dry, and it feels like sandpaper—but they’re definitely locked to Momoshiro’s. Immediately Kaidoh pulls away, he tilts his head sideways and brushes the back of his hand against his lips.

“Shut you up, alright,” he mumbles.

And he’s completely right, because there’s nothing but air escaping from Momoshiro’s usual loud mouth right this moment. He watches in shock as Kaidoh gets off of him and leaves him alone.

How much would eye surgery cost to get those laser beams implanted? Would bleach really kill you if you swallow it?

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro sees Kaidoh at school, in the hallway, right after finishing their lunch. Their eyes lock, and he immediately wipes at his lips. Kaidoh does the same, and they both stalk away. Not before shooting imaginary laser beams at the back of Kaidoh’s ugly head though. _Pew. Pew._

At practice, when their eyes meet again, they’re wiping at their lips once more, rubbing madly. Momoshiro’s lips hurt; they’re red and swollen from rubbing so much. Not because he tried bleach or anything.

When they’re locking up because practice is over, Momoshiro is alone with Kaidoh in the locker rooms. They’re each sitting on the opposite ends of the bench, it’s quiet and awkward as hell. The atmosphere feels heavy, and Momoshiro feels uncomfortable and slightly sick. He looks over when tying his shoe, and so does Kaidoh, they look at each other, and then he rubs at his lips again.

“Fshuuu, stop rubbing!”

Momoshiro glares at Kaidoh, then purposely rubs some more.

“Stop it!”

He continues. “No! It’s all your fault, you disgusting pervert!”

Kaidoh pulls him by his jacket, raising him up to his face. “What did you say!?”

Momoshiro glares right back at him. “I said you’re a disgusting pervert!”

He shakes Momoshiro. “Am not, asshole!”

Momoshiro grabs his jacket as well. “Yes, you are!”

“Shut up!”

Momoshiro growls. “ _Make me!_ ”

Kaidoh’s eyes widen just the slightest and he can hear a pin drop in the background. Realizing what he himself just implied, Momoshiro immediately backs away with wide eyes and a blush that’s now spreading across his cheeks. It feels like he just got shot with a laser beam, it feels _that_ hot. Kaidoh realizes what he said as well and his cheeks turn a bright red too—even his ears turn red. They both look away, swiping the back of their hands at their lips. It’s silent and awkward, both of them are still rubbing.

“Idiot,” Kaidoh calls out.

“Moron,” he responds.

They’re still turned away from each other.

Momoshiro finally gets up. “I’m going home.”

He wonders why his cheeks are red when the only thing he’s been rubbing are his lips the entire day.

 

**oOo**

They’re fighting on the courts, as usual. They’re up in each other’s faces, yelling insults and simply growling and hissing at each other. It almost feels like everything was back to normal, _almost._ Almost, because Momoshiro has been feeling rather jumpy and sick lately whenever he was around Kaidoh. He finds himself glaring at the snake boy more often, wishing he could crack jokes about comparing his lips to sandpaper, but that would mean he’d have to talk about what happened. That’s something Momoshiro is trying to avoid all together. He doesn’t know why, but he blames Kaidoh entirely, which is why he’s yelling at him.

“Bastard Mamushi can’t even keep up with training schedules for his members!” yells Momoshiro.

“Shut up—I don’t want to hear that from you who skips practice every day!” Kaidoh yells back.

“I’d come to practice more if you weren’t there! You make everything unbearable!”

“Shut up, asshole!”

“ _You’re_ the fucking asshole!”

“Dumbass!”

“Idiot Mamushi!”

“Don’t call me Mamushi!”

“Mamushi, Mamushi!”

Then Kaidoh glowers at him, and lets out a deep long hiss. “Shut up,” he says in a more serious voice.

Momoshiro simply scoffs at the idea. “Fuck no, Mamushi.”

Kaidoh steps a bit closer. “Shut up, _or I’ll make you_.”

That certainly gets Momoshiro’s attention, he immediately shuts his lips tight and backs away—as much as he can. His stomach is filled with a nauseous feeling, swirling around making him feel sick. He blocks his lips with his hands in a defensive move and Kaidoh stares at Momoshiro for a second, then his sandpaper lips start grinning. Oh fuck.

_Oh. Fuck._

_  
_

**oOo**

Ever since that happened, tennis practice has gotten a lot quieter than before. Even Echizen starts to notice that there’s no insults being thrown anymore. There’s no more fights on the courts, no more yelling, no more curses. Nothing, it’s quiet and members are actually playing tennis for once, undisruptive.

It’s all because of Kaidoh. And Momoshiro hates him for it. He wants to strangle Kaidoh in his sleep, and pour bleach all over his body, then set him on fire, and dance on his corpse. Well, maybe not that graphic, but he certainly wants to harm the damn snake. He really wants to punch him, but he knows, and Kaidoh knows, that if he does anything to piss him off, Kaidoh will threaten him with _that._

Yes, _that._ Somehow, that bastard has realized, that threatening to shut Momoshiro up for real with his own damn chapped lips is a very effective way to get Momoshiro to shut up. And it really _is_ effective, because Momoshiro knows he’ll do it, and he doesn’t want to. Fuck no, he doesn’t want to feel those lips on his again, he’s already been brain bleached by the previous encounters. Just thinking about it makes him feel sick and weird. But it’s getting to him, agitating him, he’s got all this bunched up anger and stress inside of him, that more and more, he’s starting to wonder what exactly he’s afraid of. All he wants to do is get physical again, to release his anger and receive satisfaction from punching Kaidoh in the face.

“Don’t make me do it!” yells Kaidoh after Momoshiro tries to get into another fight with him.

He can’t go on any longer than this; Kaidoh can’t be using that threat forever, and does he even really mean it? He’s gotta find it repulsive as well, right? Momoshiro can’t imagine that kissing him would be pleasant. No wait, scratch that, kissing Momoshiro _would_ be awesome. It’s just that anything that snake touches turns to poison. Yes, anyone else would find it pleasant, but not with Kaidoh. He’s got big fishy lips that feel like sandpaper; no one could ever find it pleasant to kiss him. Not that he could ever get someone to kiss him—especially not Momoshiro. Perhaps he’s just really bluffing, and wouldn’t do it. Momoshiro tries to test it out.

“Try it,” he bites out, and stands directly in front of Kaidoh’s face. Their noses are barely touching. The close proximity makes him feel as if he’s twirling around really fast, making him dizzy, but he’s not going to back down.

Kaidoh hisses. “I’ll really do it.”

“I don’t think you will.” He leans closer, and now their noses _are_ touching. He takes it even further, leaning in so close that his lips are hovering just millimeters apart from Kaidoh’s lips. The dizziness gets worse, and he feels his heart thumping faster because of it. But it doesn’t matter; he knows, for sure, that Kaidoh is going to back out, that he’s going to run away screaming like a little girl and furiously rub his lips and down himself with some bleach. He’s not going to do it, he just isn’t.

“See,” his voice is a whisper now, and his breath tickles Kaidoh’s lips.

What he didn’t account for, was that Kaidoh doesn’t back down from a challenge either, and Momoshiro has temporarily forgotten about that. Perhaps too much bleach to the brain, or maybe he’s been looking at laser beams for too long—that stuff damages your brain, right?

Which is why Kaidoh’s squishy big fishlips are on _his_. It’s just as dry as before, and chapped, and it tastes like melon. He wonders if he had some melon for lunch, and he thinks he saw a bunch of chapstick lying at the drugstore for only 100 Yen. Then it dawns on Momoshiro that they’re kissing. Well, they’re really just pressing their dry lips against each other—that’s not kissing, right? Doesn’t kissing require sucking? And kissing is with _girls_ , not with guys.

Even so, Momoshiro won’t back down. He’s not going to lose, it was Kaidoh’s fault for starting it, and he’s not going to pull away first. Because that would mean he’ll hate it, and Kaidoh can still use it as a threat. It would also mean losing to his rival, and anything but that, please.

So they stick to each other, like two sweaty cloths, breathing harshly through their noses, and unmoving from their positions. Momoshiro stares at Kaidoh’s eyes, but they’re so close to each other that he’s looking cross-eyed and his vision is blurry. But he doesn’t care, he wants Kaidoh to pull away. Except Kaidoh’s thinking the same, and he’s the first one that moves, not away—but _closer_. His lips are now pressing harder on Momoshiro’s, the melon taste being forced down his nose. Momoshiro feels so queasy right now; it’s making his legs shake slightly. Kaidoh’s pressing harder, so hard, that Momoshiro’s being pushed back, and he can’t stand for that, so he grabs Kaidoh’s upper right arm, and pushes back with his lips.

This was sort of, like a new way of fighting for them—anything sounded better than admitting that perhaps, they were lip locked and kissing. That’s not what it is though, certainly not. Because kissing is with pretty little girls; not with tall snakey, stubby, chapped-lipped Kaidoh who smells like melon and makes his stomach turn and twist into knots because of his queasiness. Momoshiro doesn’t even notice that Kaidoh’s hand is grabbing his arm as well, and he’s pushing back harder than before.

There they are, pushing their lips against each other in a game that almost resembles a reverse tug of war. Momoshiro’s lips feel numb from all the pushing, they also feel dryer by the second and he really wants to flick his tongue over it to wet them a bit. But that would mean having to part from Kaidoh, and Momoshiro is not going to lose.

“Momo-senpai, Kaidoh-senpai, what are you two doing?”

They spring apart as if a lightning bolt struck down between them, so surprised and so shocked that they’re already three feet apart from each other. Echizen is standing between them, with his hands in his pockets, aloof as always.

“F-fighting,” stutters Momoshiro. He avoids looking at Kaidoh. He avoids licking his lips to make them wet.

“That didn’t look like fighting to me.”

“Shut up, Echizen,” says Momoshiro.

“Twenty laps, Echizen,” says Kaidoh.

Echizen slouches away. “Che.”

Momoshiro kicks a pebble away with the tip of his shoe. He still avoids looking at Kaidoh. He’s not even rubbing his lips. Then he finally twists his body a bit, so that he can stare at Kaidoh’s shoes.

“We were fighting,” he mumbles. He starts walking away. “We were.”

For once, Kaidoh agrees with him on something.

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro buys a laser pen, and points it at Kaidoh’s back whenever he sees him. In the hallways, during class, during tennis practice—he doesn’t care, he just wants to shoot Kaidoh. Each time he does, he quietly makes _pew pew_ sound effects. The snake doesn’t even notice, what an idiot. He aims for his back, his ass, his bandana, his forehead, anything really. When Kaidoh shifts his position, so that the previous red dot that was on the back of his bandana, now shines directly on his lips, Momoshiro springs back as if he had been burned himself. He feels sick and growls at Kaidoh.

“Momo-senpai, don’t you think that’s dangerous?” asks Echizen as he exits the tennis courts.

Momoshiro looks up at the younger boy from his crouched down position, and frowns at him; why would this be dangerous? He wasn’t doing anything dangerous. Mind your own business, stupid brat.

“Go away,” he responds.

Echizen shrugs and walks away. Momoshiro turns his laser pen on the back of Echizen’s hat, but it feels wrong, somehow, so he returns to shooting Kaidoh again, who is still unaware of it all. Stupid Kaidoh and his stupid methods and his stupid lips. Momoshiro points the pen at his ass, and imagines it catching fire and Kaidoh comically running away with his ass on fire. He snickers at the thought. The sneaky little snickers coming from Momoshiro finally makes Kaidoh turn his head over and see what the hell he was laughing about. Those glaring tiny eyes look at Momoshiro, as if he were secretly wishing to kill him—which probably isn’t that far off from the truth. He exits the courts and walks around the fence to where Momoshiro is hiding.

“What are you doing, moron,” says Kaidoh when he notices Momoshiro’s position. He’s crouched down, behind a bush right next to the fence.

Momoshiro points the red dot at his forehead, and snickers again because Kaidoh has no idea. “None of your business.”

Kaidoh finally notices the laser pen clutched in Momoshiro’s hand, and then he growls loudly at him. He reaches for it, but Momoshiro pulls back so he can’t grab it.

“Hands off, Mamushi,” says Momoshiro defensively. “I specifically bought it to piss you off.”

If Kaidoh wasn’t annoyed already, he certainly is now. He steps closer, and swipes his hand at the laser pen, and finally manages to take it out of Momoshiro’s hand.

“Hey, give that back, you bastard!”

Kaidoh presses the button and now there’s a red dot shining on Momoshiro’s forehead. “It’s mine now.”

Momoshiro lunges forward with the intent of grabbing his precious laser pen back. Kaidoh merely sidesteps him, and raises the laser pen above his head.

“Mamushi!” Momoshiro yanks on Kaidoh’s sleeve, but he’s still holding it up with a nasty smirk on his face.

“That’s what you get for annoying me the entire day,” Kaidoh simply states. He pauses. “Jerk,” he adds.

“What, you didn’t even notice it, so what are you complaining about!”

Kaidoh then whacks his elbow on top of Momoshiro’s head, and while he’s holding his head in pain, he walks away, stuffing the laser pen in his shorts. Momoshiro lingers around after practice, because he knows Kaidoh has to lock up. He wants his laser pen back, that bastard, it’s _his_ toy, a toy to annoy the snake—it wasn’t a damn gift. So he waits at the school gates with his bike in tow, looking around to see if he spots the bandana clad boy.

“Stop stalking me.” Kaidoh briskly walks by him.

Momoshiro pushes his bike forwards to catch up with him, walking side by side. “Give it back, Mamushi.”

Kaidoh picks up his pace. “No.”

Momoshiro walks faster to keep up with the snake. “Give it back or I’ll punch you in the face.”

“Laser pens are dangerous, you know.” He’s jogging now, and so is Momoshiro.

“I don’t fucking care, give it back.”

They’re running now, and Momoshiro wonders if Kaidoh is running away from him, or actually doing his training. Either way, he doesn’t care, he just wants his laser pen back. But Kaidoh’s running too fast, so Momoshiro hops on his bike and speeds after him.

“Mamushi!” he yells at him as he rides next to him on the sidewalk.

“Dumbass,” Kaidoh responds but continues running along.

They’re at the riverbanks now, and Momoshiro knows Kaidoh is simply ignoring him and resuming his after-school practice. The one that Inui gave him to follow, and then he tripled the workload or something. The freak. He peddles faster to keep up with Kaidoh. He yells some more obscene words at him, threatening him to give it back, but of course it all falls on deaf ears. This pisses Momoshiro off, and then he rides up next to Kaidoh, and slams his bike into him.

Kaidoh gets thrown to the side, and Momoshiro falls off of his bike as well and they both roll down the riverbank, with his bike dangerously rolling along. Arms and legs flail around, and he’s sure he gets to kick Kaidoh in the face as a bonus point. They come to a halt at the bottom, both of their clothes now completely dirty, and he’s got scrapes on his knee too. His bike is right behind him, luckily it didn’t hit him on the way down. Momoshiro looks over at Kaidoh to see if he’s alright, and then gets punched straight in the face. He clutches his nose and groans in pain immediately.

“Ow, what the fuck!”

“Are you _trying_ to kill me!?” hisses Kaidoh.

“I wasn’t, but now I wish I had, you asshole!” He’s still holding his nose, and he’s sure it’s bleeding too, seeing small drops of blood fall onto his fingers. Then he holds out his bloodied hand towards Kaidoh, who looks at him incredulously.

“Give it,” he says.

Kaidoh digs his hand into his shorts and pulls out the laser pen. He shows it to Momoshiro, who’s just about to grab it, when Kaidoh pulls back his arm, and flings the laser pen into the river. With a splashing plunge, Momoshiro looks at it in shock. Then his shock turns into anger, and he launches himself onto Kaidoh, throwing punches at his chest and face. He’s angry, he’s seething; so he doesn’t hold back, all he thinks about is hitting Kaidoh where it hurts so he can stop thinking about his own pain. Stop thinking about the queasiness in the pit of his stomach, and how Kaidoh’s panting loudly underneath him. There’s blood everywhere, mostly from his nose, but he knows he gets a cut on Kaidoh’s lips, and that makes him feel a lot better.

They roll around in the dirt, Kaidoh’s not holding back either, giving back as good as he gets. There’s a power struggle between them, and Kaidoh rolls over Momoshiro, and Momoshiro rolls over Kaidoh. Each of them keep taking turns into getting on top of the other, and holding them down. After several minutes of doing this, continuously, they’re tired, panting for air, and the sweat on their bodies makes their clothes stick to their skin like glue. Kaidoh’s bandana lays somewhere forgotten in the grass, a little ways behind them.

Momoshiro comes out on top this time, and Kaidoh doesn’t have the energy to fling him off anymore, but he still tries, despite Momoshiro holding his wrists down above his head. He looks down at Kaidoh’s hair that clings to his forehead, at his tired and half open eyes, and at his fish lips that are parted and slightly bleeding. There’s so much adrenaline rushing through him, his heart is thumping wildly in his chest and his stomach feels jittery and jumpy. This strange urge runs through his body, taking control of him, making him feel dizzy and sleepy at the same time. He wonders briefly if sniffing too much bleach can make him go crazy.

Kaidoh shifts his weight underneath Momoshiro, then he parts his lips even more, most likely to say something, but before he can even utter a word, Momoshiro seals it with his lips. Their sweaty lips crash against each other awkwardly. It tastes like blood and a whole lot of sweat, but at least the sweat has moistened Kaidoh’s lips so they don’t feel as chapped anymore. Kaidoh’s stiff and still below him, not moving while Momoshiro’s lips are still pressed up against his. It lasts for two, three seconds, and Momoshiro pulls back with a flushed face. He wipes his lips to get rid of some of the blood that got transferred to him, and he refuses to look at Kaidoh anymore.

“Bastard,” Kaidoh calls out.

He uses Momoshiro’s moment of weakness to throw him off, and crawl on top of him now. He lowers himself down and catches Momoshiro’s lips. It’s just as sweaty and bloody as before—it tastes like iron. But for some reason, Momoshiro doesn’t really care anymore, instead he breathes heavily through his nose and closes his eyes. He latches himself onto Kaidoh’s arms, and even though he really wants to push the snake away, he simply holds him into the same position, and Momoshiro pushes back against Kaidoh’s sweaty fish lips. There’s so much perspiration between them that their lips angrily swipe across each other, sliding and rubbing and doing a number on Momoshiro’s mind.

Momoshiro’s thoughts have run dry. Instead of thinking about all the nasty stuff that makes up Kaidoh, his stomach is doing barrel rolls, his head feels light headed, and he can’t stop thinking about the way Kaidoh’s lips are smearing blood all over his own, and most importantly; he doesn’t give a fuck. Kaidoh’s lips leave him which causes a draft of cold air to flow between them and he wonders if he’s shivering because it’s cold, or because he doesn’t want to stop.

If it’s the latter, does it mean they stopped fighting for real? No, Momoshiro won’t look at this as anything else _but_ fighting, so he arches his back and his lips hungrily reach out for Kaidoh’s, who’s not even giving a complaint. It feels hot and soft this time; it fills up his entire body. Kaidoh’s lips are so sticky that they pull Momoshiro’s bottom lip down a bit as he moves, which makes him shiver in response. Because that felt nasty, that is, not because he wanted him to do it again.

And then he can feel the suction through Kaidoh’s lips, he pulls all the blood in Momoshiro’s lips to the front, along with his last remaining thoughts. Momoshiro writhes and squirms beneath Kaidoh as Kaidoh sucks, _hard._ When Kaidoh manages to draw out some sort of strange and incoherent voice from Momoshiro’s throat, Momoshiro snaps awake. His eyes spring wide open and he pushes Kaidoh off of him, who goes down with a loud ‘oof!’. He scrambles up, grabs his bike and peddles away as if the dogs from hell are chasing after him.

It might as well have been, because when he looked back at Kaidoh, he was standing at the riverbank, clutching his bandana, looking dirty, molested and incredibly angry.

On his way home, he drops by a drugstore to buy some bandages for the cuts on his knees. He spots the 100 Yen chapsticks on the shelf right next to it, and decides to buy that one, too.

He draws a snake on the bandage on his knee.

 

**oOo**

The first thing Momoshiro does when he sees Kaidoh, is fling the chapstick at his head. It hits right on the mark, and he flails forward, then whirls around to see what hit him and _who_ hit him. Momoshiro bolts towards the nearest classroom.

“What happened to your face, Momo-senpai?” asks Echizen on the courts.

He must have been referring to Momoshiro’s cheek which was swollen, or his nose which was bruised and had a nasty purple colour surrounding it.

He clears his throat. “I got into a fight,” he says.

Kaidoh walks by, sporting a nice cut on his lips, not looking much different from Momoshiro himself. “Seems like you lost,” he interjects.

Before Momoshiro can retaliate, Echizen notices his captain’s face as well. “What happened to _your_ lips, Kaidoh-senpai?” He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his pants, and gives both of his senpais a leering and thoughtful look. “You guys weren’t fighting each other, right?”

“If we were, I would have won,” says Momoshiro.

“But you didn’t,” points out Kaidoh.

Momoshiro raises his fist. “Who says I lost!”

Kaidoh pulls back his fist as well. “I did, you loser!”

Momoshiro steps closer, and so does Kaidoh. “I won, idiot Mamushi!”

“You completely lost, moron!” They’re now grabbing each other’s jackets again, pulling themselves close.

“Are you guys going to do _that_ sort of fighting again? Because I don’t want to be around if that happens,” says Echizen in an un-caring way.

Both of them flush and spring apart. “Fifty laps, Echizen!” they yell in unison.

“Che.”

When Echizen is out of sight, Momoshiro shoots Kaidoh a dirty look. “Who wants to _fight_ with you anyway. It’s fucking nasty. Learn to use chapstick.”

“So that _was_ you!” Kaidoh swings his fist at Momoshiro. He dodges, but now they’re fighting for real again, despite still having injuries from yesterday. “It’s not like you’re all that great either,” breathes out Kaidoh as he wipes off some of the blood on his lips that started bleeding again. “Your breath _reeks_ , even breath mints wouldn’t help you out.”

Momoshiro feels a pang of hurt, but it’s so subtle, so tiny, he doesn’t notice it and is completely on the offense. “Yeah well—you don’t smell so great either. Stuff that grows between my toes smells better than your breath.” Then he adds, “and when’s the last time you shaved!?”

“When’s the last time _you_ shaved!?”

“Just this morning, asshole!”

“Stinky breath moron!”

“Stubby chapped-lipped bastard!”

“Stalker!”

“Pervert!”

Kaidoh pulls back and narrows his eyes at him. “ _I hate you_.”

Something heavy drops inside of Momoshiro’s stomach, and it makes him feel the queasiest, the dizziest and most nauseous he has ever felt before. “I hate you too,” he responds, his voice deadly serious. It almost feels like he wants to throw up, the world is spinning in front of him and he doesn’t quite get what’s going on anymore. Except that he really wants to hurt Kaidoh right now.

They walk away from each other. Momoshiro misses his laser pen. He takes some medicine to calm his stomach down when he goes to bed that night.

He draws a laser beam stabbing the snake on the bandage that’s on his knee.

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro looks away, to the right, away from Kaidoh who is standing in front of him.

“What do you want, unless it is to say you’re transferring away from here, I don’t want to hear about it,” says Momoshiro with a huff.

Kaidoh pulls something out of his pocket, then lays it on top of Momoshiro’s desk. He doesn’t look at it.

“Here.”

Curiosity gets the better of him, and Momoshiro sneaks a peek at his desk. On it lays the shiny metal little pen; his laser pen. So Kaidoh either bought him a new one, or went back to the river and fished it out of the water—probably the former. Suddenly, he’s not feeling as nauseous anymore, but he won’t admit to feeling a bit better just because Mamushi went and gave him a laser pen. Then Kaidoh puts his hand on the desk again, something curled up inside of it. Momoshiro looks at it, and Kaidoh lifts his hand away and already starts to walk out of class.

It’s a breath mint.

Momoshiro chucks it at Kaidoh’s head during practice. The fucking bastard. But at least he’s not taking anymore medicine to help make his stomach feel better.

He draws a smiley face on the snake, that is getting stabbed by a laser beam.

 

**oOo**

“Stop staring at me!” yells Kaidoh. He hits his racket against the ball and it goes hurtling towards his opponent.

Momoshiro, who is on the sideline, cocks his head to the side. “I’m not staring at you,” he replies bluntly. “I’m _observing_.”

Kaidoh hisses out loud. “That’s the same as staring!”

He shakes his head. “No way, staring would mean I’m actually doing it without reason. Observing is done _with_ a reason.” Wow, he actually sounded smart for once.

“I don’t care, just stop it already, you moron. You’re distracting me.” He hits the ball again, performing his signature move ‘snake’.

“Yeah but, there’s something different about you,” Momoshiro notes. All day it has been bugging him, he doesn’t quite know what it is, but there’s something different about Kaidoh. Something, something which he hasn’t figured out yet, so he resorted to observing him. Observing, not staring or stalking.

“What’s different is that I’m practicing and you’re not doing a damn thing. You’re supposed to set up the rosters.”

“Whatever, I’ve got plenty of time for that still.”

“Do it now or I’ll make you run laps.”

“Yes, Kaidoh _-chan_ ,” he spits out sarcastically.

“Ten laps, Momoshiro!”

Momoshiro grins to himself when he notices how many laps Echizen gets assigned for getting on Kaidoh’s nerves, compared to his measly ten laps.

After practice, Momoshiro waits for Kaidoh again at the school gates. He still hasn’t figured out what is so different about Kaidoh, and he’s determined to find out before the end of the day. If that means stalking Kaidoh, then he will. His bike is already in his hands, so he can speed off after Kaidoh if he decides to run away.

“Get lost,” says Kaidoh and is already jogging away.

Momoshiro hops onto his bike and rides next to Kaidoh. “Come on, tell me—I need to know what’s different about you. I know there is!”

“Nothing is,” he says. “It’s all in your head.”

Momoshiro looks closely at Kaidoh’s face; maybe it’s his bandana? But it looks the same as always, there’s nothing different about it. Then his eyes travel down, to his eyebrows which are knitted together in a rather unpleasant and angry frown, nothing different about that too. His nose is as ugly as always, and his eyes are big and scary and look as if he’s doing drugs. Nothing different there. So what exactly is it? Then he sees it; the shiny glint coming off of Kaidoh’s lips as a car speeds past them with the headlights on.

“It’s your lips!” yells out Momoshiro.

Kaidoh grunts and runs faster, but Momoshiro has no trouble catching up. “Stop following me!”

“Your lips are _shiny_ , what the hell man—are you wearing lipstick?”

“I’m not wearing lipstick, you dumbass.”

“Oh my god—it’s the chapstick! You’re wearing _chapstick!_ Oh, that’s fricking hilarious!” Momoshiro starts roaring with laughter, finding this to be the funniest thing on earth.

Kaidoh actually went and applied chapstick to his lips! All because of Momoshiro’s teasing! Not that they weren’t based on truth or anything; Kaidoh really needed chapstick, but he never figured he could actually influence the snake to start using it. It’s the most hilarious thing ever!

“Ahahaha, you actually listened to me and put chapstick on. Good for you man, good for you.”

Kaidoh starts running at full speed, but not before giving Momoshiro one nasty glare, which doesn’t nearly have the impact that Kaidoh thought it would have, because his cheeks are flushed with red. This makes Momoshiro laugh out loud even more. He wishes he had a camera with him or something, so he could take a picture of Kaidoh wearing chapstick and blushing because he’s embarrassed at getting caught at it. It’s so damn adorable. He blanks out: what did he just think Kaidoh was? Then Momoshiro’s bike rides over a huge stone, and he loses control of his bike and falls down in a rather painful way. The air gets knocked out of him, and he finds himself rolling off of a cliff, all the way to the bottom. He comes to a stop, and notices he’s at the riverbank, almost at the same spot where he and Kaidoh were 'fighting' that one time. The handlebar of his bike is digging into his side and he groans in pain and kicks his bike away.

A few seconds later and Kaidoh comes running down the hill.

“Are you dead?” he asks. That’s probably the nicest way Kaidoh could ever ask him if he was alright or not. He stands still next to Momoshiro.

Momoshiro sits up straight and gives Kaidoh a stupid look. “Idiot, what do you think?”

“I think you’re an idiot for not watching where you’re going. I told you to stop staring at me.”

For some reason, that makes Momoshiro blush pink. “I didn’t fall because I was staring at you! Who would ever stare at you, ugly Mamushi!”

Kaidoh’s nostrils flare up. “Obviously, you do—because you’re the only one who noticed today!”

“Huh, noticed what?”

Kaidoh's blushing now, and Momoshiro knows what he’s talking about, but it’s much more fun to pretend to be dumb and to torment him. “You know,” he stammers.

“Enlighten me,” he says sarcastically.

So Kaidoh does.

With his lips.

And it doesn’t feel terrible at all, nothing at all like the first time where it was dry and chapped. This time it was smooth, soft, warm and it was sending fire down his throat, which settles down in his stomach. Momoshiro makes a tiny gargled noise in the back of his throat as a form of protest, not like that did anything to stop Kaidoh, nor was it a very loud protest. No, he even starts to suck, and damnit, it feels a hundred times better than when he first did it and they were all sweaty and bloody. He’s frozen, but he feels like he’s on fire, and his stomach feels like it’s filled up with a thousand frogs that are getting roasted by the crackling, out-of-control fire.

Kaidoh pulls away, their wet lips cling to each other for a split second as he does, his eyes are narrowed and looking away from him.

Momoshiro clears his throat and coughs awkwardly. “Well, uhm, that’s not really what I meant.”

Kaidoh hits him on the head.

“Hey! You were the one that started it!” he yells indignantly and he shields his head for any other incoming blows.

“What’s that?” Kaidoh asks.

“Huh, what’s what?”

Kaidoh points at the bandage on his knee, the one with the snake drawn on it.

“Oh this? It’s you, getting shot by a laser beam, pretty cool, huh?” explains Momoshiro cheerfully.

Kaidoh punches his knee, right on the bandage, and Momoshiro yelps in pain. “Bastard,” he murmurs. He glares at Kaidoh, who glares back at him, and then he leans forward—for what reason, he doesn’t know, but he makes sure that his lips are on Kaidoh’s. The fire returns and starts pouring out of his body in the form of sweat, and a blush on his cheeks. This time, he’s the one that sucks, because Kaidoh’s lips don’t feel that bad when he’s wearing chapstick; they’re big, lush, and really squishy. As revenge, Momoshiro nips at the wound on Kaidoh’s lips, and the snake pulls back in an instant with wide eyes.

Kaidoh hisses, then gets up and jogs away.

“Hey Kaidoh,” Momoshiro calls out. He quickly grabs his bike.

Kaidoh simply grunts in response.

He grins like a fool, but Kaidoh can’t see. “We should fight more often!” Momoshiro rides after him, Kaidoh hisses, but he let's him ride next to him the entire way of Kaidoh’s jogging route.

The next day he pops a breath mint in his mouth, and makes sure Kaidoh notices.


	2. Ignorant

It’s been happening a lot lately, almost every day. Kaidoh doesn’t initiate it, aside from the odd few times that he does (but those are so rare they don’t count); it’s Momoshiro who does it. Not only that, the frequency of their fights have gone up, doubled, no— _tripled_ , which Kaidoh thinks is really just an excuse for Momoshiro to start doing what he likes to do several times a day. The worst part? Kaidoh lets him.

Hence why he’s pushed against a metal rack this moment, some of the supplies jabbing into his back, but it’s not like Momoshiro cares about his safety or wellbeing. Not even when Kaidoh groans in frustration and tells him to stop pushing him against the rack and get off of him already. No, Momoshiro has a one-track mind, and right now, that means he’s only thinking about sucking face. Because he likes to do that.

Not that Kaidoh would ever admit to liking it.

But he lets him.

Inconspicuously, he tries to shift his position away from the rack, so that he can save his back from getting too many bruises. His lips slide across Momoshiro’s wet ones as he side-steps away, but the idiot grabs his arms and slams him into the rack even more.

“Fucker!” Kaidoh yells out as one sharp metal object prods his spine.

“Shut up,” murmurs Momoshiro. He returns to sucking Kaidoh’s lips again, and Kaidoh does shut up.

He feels dizzy now, and his strength is slipping away. It might have something to do with the way Momoshiro nibbles on his bottom lip, which makes his lips feel sore but not in a bad way, or it could really just be that the sharp metal object is threatening to pierce through his skin. That’s not good, especially when Momoshiro decides to press his entire body against Kaidoh, and now he’s certain the object has pierced through his skin.

“Gah, damnit!” he screams and shoves Momoshiro off of him. The idiot awkwardly flails around and crashes against a stack of boxes behind him. Kaidoh finally jumps away from the rack and whirls around; there are scissors lying on one of the shelves. Fucking _scissors._

“Dude, what the hell?” asks Momoshiro bewildered.

Kaidoh growls at Momoshiro. “Stop pushing me against things! I had scissors stabbing me in the back, moron—you know how much that hurts? Why don’t you come over here for a second and I’ll show you?”

Momoshiro grins sheepishly and shakes his head. “Relax, calm down, my bad, my bad.”

He hisses at him; he knows Momoshiro is not sorry for it at all. He knows that all he wants to do is find a _different_ rack to shove him up against. Well fuck that. He angrily stomps away and leaves the storage room.

“Mamushi!” calls Momoshiro after him, but he’s already left.

Kaidoh thinks that next time, he’ll shove Momoshiro up against something. But it’s not like he’s planning on doing something like this again, and he certainly isn’t looking forward to it.

 

**oOo**

Kaidoh purses his lips at the mirror, then slides the stick of lip balm against his chapped lips. He doesn’t really care much for it, it’s not like he notices it or that it hurts, but he knows Momoshiro will complain. Not that he keeps track, or that he’s doing it for Momoshiro. No, he’s doing it because ... it makes his lips look shiny. Yeah, that’s it, he likes to fucking sparkle. Fuck. He slams his fist onto the edge of the sink, which _hurts_ , and he curses even more. He’s going to punch Momoshiro in the face next time he sees him, just for payback for making him wear chapstick.

On the courts, he spots the idiot running laps. “Mamushi!” greets Momoshiro happily.

Kaidoh punches him in the face. Momoshiro stumbles backwards with a yelp of pain. He sighs in relief; that felt good, it was totally worth it.

“For fuck’s sake, Kaidoh—can you not do that every time you see my face!?” says Momoshiro as he rubs his nose.

“But your face is so punchable.” That seems like a good enough excuse for him.

Momoshiro growls at him, then swings his fist at Kaidoh too. “Yeah well, your face is ... is ... it just looks stupid!” And then he does land a hit on Kaidoh’s face, and now they’re fighting each other. Not before Momoshiro notices something. “Hey, you put on chapstick again.”

Kaidoh hisses and tries to hide his face, which is a bit hard to do when Momoshiro is holding him in a headlock underneath his smelly and stinky armpit. Momoshiro secretly swipes his thumb across Kaidoh’s lips, it’s quick and gentle, and no one else sees it. The spot where he touched starts to throb; he’s glad he wore chapstick today. The idiot smiles at him, a smile that makes Kaidoh’s stomach turn inside out. He finally wrestles his way out of Momoshiro’s headlock, gives him an evil glare, then sulks away.

Maybe he’ll try some strawberry flavoured chapstick next time.

 

**oOo**

“You are so booooring, Mamushi,” whines Momoshiro.

He’s riding his bike next to Kaidoh, who is trying his utmost best to not shove him off of the bike, onto the street, and watch him get hit by a car. No, that’s too violent, even for Kaidoh. He’d rather not dirty his clothes with Momoshiro’s blood, his mother would have to wash it for him and he likes his mother. He doesn’t like Momoshiro.

“Shut up, leave me alone. Go home already,” says Kaidoh. He continues to jog his regular everyday route. Momoshiro has gotten into the habit of stalking him all the way, in the hopes of some more face sucking.

“So boooring!” he repeats.

“If it’s so boring, then leave!”

“Noooo, it’s too much fun following you.”

“Fun? What the hell, weren’t you just saying how boring I am?”

“Yes, _you_ are boring. Following you and annoying you is fun. There is a difference, you know.”

Kaidoh elbows Momoshiro in his side, and he swerves and ends up riding on the road. It’s okay though; there were no cars in sight, Kaidoh made sure. Sort of. A quick glance around counts, right? Momoshiro jumps back up on the sidewalk, he’s fuming now.

He swats the back of Kaidoh’s head, almost knocking off his bandana.“I’m gonna ride you over with my bike if you do that, one more time,” he threatens.

Kaidoh fixes his bandana. “Like I care.” He picks up his speed, but Momoshiro easily follows him; he’s got a bike after all.

“Come on, let’s go do something. You jogging is booooring,” he whines again.

“Go to hell, dumbass.”

“Anything else other than running is fine with me! Just ... something else!”

Then Kaidoh finally stops jogging, and Momoshiro has to do a huge dramatic turn with his steering wheel to prevent them from crashing into each other. “Hey, warn me next time, asshole!” Momoshiro turns on his brakes, and looks back at Kaidoh.

“Fine, I’ll do something else,” says Kaidoh, then he runs across the street in a different direction. Hurriedly, Momoshiro follows after him.

“Really? What, what is it? Are we gonna go somewhere to eat? ‘Cause I’m starving I tell yah—oh hamburgers sounds good. There’s a WcDonalds around here somewhere, I think, are we gonna go there?”

“Why don’t you just shut up,” responds Kaidoh agitated. He starts running up a hill, and Momoshiro peddles faster to ride next to him.

“Asshole.”

“Dumbass.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re so booooring, honestly. There can’t be anyone else left on this earth that’s even more boring than you.”

Kaidoh can’t control himself, and he elbows Momoshiro in his side once more. This time he nearly manages to crash into a street pole on the side walk. Unfortunately, he swerves around it on pure dumb luck. Damn.

“Damnit, Mamushi!” Momoshiro rides so close to Kaidoh that his wheel hits the back of Kaidoh’s ankle, he hisses and runs faster up the hill to get away from him.

“Come back here and face me like a man!”

“Why don’t you stop being annoying and leave me the hell alone!” hisses Kaidoh back.

Momoshiro stands on his pedals to add more force to his peddling; the hill has gotten pretty steep now. “Because I’m hungry, and you’re gonna treat me for some burgers!”

“Like hell I am!” Kaidoh runs faster up the hill, and Momoshiro quickly follows him, despite panting loudly.

“Hey, isn’t this hill kind of steep,” says Momoshiro once he notices how quickly fatigued he has become.

Kaidoh says nothing, and runs up the hill, it’s so steep right now, it’s almost impossible to keep riding it up with his bike.

“Hey, where the hell are we going?”

“Why don’t you look in front of you?” asks Kaidoh.

Momoshiro, who has previously only been looking at Kaidoh, lifts up his head and looks in front of him. The hill wasn’t a hill; it was a very steep mountain trail. One that would not be possible to go up while using a bike.

“You asshole, you did that on purpose!”

Kaidoh snickers, then starts to sprint away.

Momoshiro finally hops off of his bike and glares at Kaidoh. “Fucking asshole! You owe me some burgers!”

From then on, Momoshiro would only _sometimes_ follow him after school, and he likes it that way. He’d prefer to never ever run with him again, but this is fine too.

 

**oOo**

“Come,” says Momoshiro in a hurry. He grabs Kaidoh’s hand and drags him along. Kaidoh would have usually punched him in the face by now, because he doesn’t like holding Momoshiro’s hand, but he lets him get dragged—just this once. He feels bad for making him ride up that hill last time, so he doesn’t protest when Momoshiro’s grip on his hand tightens, and it makes him feel a little bit hotter.

They’re inside the storage room again, the place has become a breeding ground for physical activities between him and the idiot. Kaidoh closes the door behind him, and locks it—mostly because Echizen had walked in on them last time, and that was already mortifying enough. There’s only so many times they can claim they are fighting when they really aren’t. Not like he’ll admit that himself.

Before Momoshiro can turn around and do something, Kaidoh shoves him against the metal rack and angrily forces his lips on his. Yes, it’s one of those rare times when Kaidoh is the one who initiates it, not because he wants to, but because otherwise _he’d_ be the one shoved against the rack, and that’s something he doesn’t want to experience again. Momoshiro doesn’t seem to notice his devious plan, and he sucks on Kaidoh’s lips, which makes his legs feel like jelly and his eyes flutter closed.

Momoshiro pulls back a little, and he can feel him grin against his lips. “You taste like strawberry,” he says in a soft voice.

Kaidoh responds by pushing harder into Momoshiro’s body, the metal rack behind them begins to rattle a little. “Shut up,” he mumbles.

For once, Momoshiro really does shut up. Their lips are back together again, moist and hot, and sucking and sliding. Kaidoh notices how Momoshiro is clean shaven and he suppresses the urge to grin at that information; at least he doesn’t have to complain about it anymore. All of the sudden, Momoshiro’s tongue brushes against his lips. Kaidoh does a double take and grunts loudly, immediately followed by a large blush spreading across his face. He hopes Momoshiro didn’t hear that. It seems that, he didn’t, because Momoshiro continues to slide his tongue across his lips.

“That’s disgusting, stop that,” says Kaidoh and he pulls away.

Momoshiro shrugs, and plants his lips on Kaidoh’s again. They have _never_ used their tongues before, not that Kaidoh was thinking about it or wanted to try out. But Momoshiro seems to want to, because he’s gently licking Kaidoh’s upper lip again, using the tip of his tongue, tracing the wrinkles on his lips, and it feels slimy and hot and disgusting and his heart is thumping in his chest. He wants to tell him to stop again, but the voice in his throat seems to have abandoned him. Probably sometime after Momoshiro started making swirls on his lips.

He clutches Momoshiro’s shirt with his hands, and he grinds into his body, closer to his slimy and disgusting tongue. Momoshiro shifts uncomfortably, most likely something is stabbing him in the back, and this makes Kaidoh brim with revenge. Serves him right. Thoughts of revenge get turned to mush when Momoshiro forces his way through Kaidoh’s mouth, and his tongue is now inside of him, and it bumps against his teeth. It feels weird, kinda funny, very hot and very wet, but he doesn’t have it in him to pull away, despite thinking it’s really gross and Momoshiro’s breath isn’t the greatest. No, Kaidoh’s rational thoughts have pretty much left him by now, and he can’t even seem to stop the weird noises coming from the back of his throat. He just hopes Momoshiro’s deaf or something.

Then Momoshiro’s tongue touches his, and it sends an electric shock down his body upon contact, like a very loud _zing!_ The reaction that follows is a loud gasp, and he’s sure Momoshiro heard that one. Kaidoh’s hands let go of Momoshiro’s shirt, and now he claws at his chest, for no good reason other than wanting to have a pillar of support for him, because he feels like his legs might give away soon. Momoshiro’s tongue brushes against his again in an experimental way, and another electric shock shoots through his body. His ears are ringing with electricity and his knees are slightly trembling. This time, it’s Momoshiro who groans into Kaidoh’s mouth with his stinky breath. Kaidoh tolerates it, simply because Momoshiro’s tongue doesn’t feel that bad, and he sort of want to try it himself. He lifts his tongue and makes contact with Momoshiro again—he can feel his body tremble against him, and this sends a different kind of electric shock through his body—and swirls his tongue around the wet piece of muscle.

They become more aggressive, as it usually happens when they’re being physical together, and Momoshiro battles for power with Kaidoh’s tongue. It’s rough, it’s hot, his breath smells, but he can’t stop himself from hungrily wanting more. Then Momoshiro’s tongue slips out of his mouth, and he immediately wants to pull it back in because he feels cold and empty without it, the ringing in his ears immediately stop.

“Kaidoh, wait,” says Momoshiro in an unsteady voice.

Kaidoh leans closer; he wants that slimy stinky tongue back.

“Hold on, something’s stabbing me in the back.” Momoshiro tries to push Kaidoh away from him, but Kaidoh is half thinking about revenge, and half thinking about his tongue, so he doesn’t leave either way. Instead, he pushes himself harder against Momoshiro.

“Fuck!” Now he really pushes Kaidoh away, and he stumbles backwards a few steps.

Momoshiro looks behind him; the same exact scissors that were piercing his skin that one time had been stabbing Momoshiro’s back as well. Ah, revenge feels good. The idiot growls at him, and Kaidoh simply hisses in return, but it sounds more like a sloppy slur because his mouth is really, really wet.

“You did that on purpose,” he points out.

“No I didn’t,” he lies.

“Asshole.”

“Dumbass.”

They both claw each other’s backs as their bodies meet again, hungrily swirling their tongues together and breathing harshly. A good five minutes later, they exit the storage room, their faces flushed with red, their hair in dismay, and their clothes wrinkled despite it being recently washed. They look at each other, Kaidoh glares and Momoshiro sticks his tongue out—which only serves to make Kaidoh’s face grow hotter—and they walk away as if nothing happened.

He should wear strawberry flavoured chapstick every day.

 

**oOo**

Kaidoh grabs the bento box off of the kitchen sink, and he looks at it with a slight smile playing on his lips. He notices he’s grinning like an idiot, so he hisses to himself (he’s not exempt from this treatment), and stuffs the bento inside of his schoolbag.

As expected, during lunch, Momoshiro comes loudly crashing inside of his classroom. It doesn’t matter he’s not in the same classroom as Kaidoh, and it doesn’t matter he’s the only one he knows in class; Momoshiro will come and pester him for food regardless. Kaidoh tries to ignore the hungry puppy in front of him, and he breaks his chopsticks in half, getting ready to eat his own bento.

“Yo, Mamushi, share some of your mom’s lunch with me,” says Momoshiro.

Kaidoh takes off the lid of his bento, and Momoshiro’s eyes follow his every move. The idiot is probably so hungry he’ll try to grab his food as soon as he can, so Kaidoh puts his arm around the box to defend it from Momoshiro’s prying hands.

“Don’t be so stingy,” says Momoshiro. He has his own chopsticks in his hand—where’d that come from—and he’s circling it above Kaidoh’s bento box, wondering what piece of food he should steal.

“Go away, this is my lunch,” hisses Kaidoh. He bats away the chopsticks with his own, and a mini-battle of chopsticks ensues for a little while. That is, until Momoshiro finally manages to steal a maki roll from his box.

“Asshole!” Kaidoh yells when Momoshiro pops it into his mouth.

“Hmmm!” he says in satisfaction. Then he raises his eyebrows, and frowns while he chews slowly. “Hey, this tastes a bit weird.”

Kaidoh huffs and pulls the box towards him so that Momoshiro can’t steal anything else. But of course, the idiot leans over the desk this time and takes a fried piece of shrimp. He easily pops it into his mouth like he did with the maki roll.

“Yeah, this is definitely different. I think your mom’s losing her touch, Kaidoh,” he says thoughtfully. “It doesn’t taste that good.”

Kaidoh’s stomach clenches tightly and he feels sick. He growls loudly and kicks Momoshiro’s legs underneath the table.

“Ow, what’s that for!” yells Momoshiro.

Kaidoh’s already packing up and walking out of his classroom; that idiot doesn’t deserve Kaidoh making lunch for him. What a fucking ungrateful bastard.

He’ll never make lunch for Momoshiro ever again.

 

**oOo**

“What are you doing?” Kaidoh asks.

“Can’t you see? I’m running,” says Momoshiro.

And they are, together, running on the sidewalk, which is supposed to be Kaidoh’s jogging route, not Momoshiro’s. Kaidoh has just finished locking up the tennis club, and was jogging alone until Momoshiro popped up next to him.

“Where’s your bike?”

“Left it at home today, didn’t feel like it,” he says with a shrug.

“You won’t be able to run all the way,” Kaidoh points out.

“Sure I can, if you can do it, I can do it better!”

“Idiot.”

“Asshole.”

They start to jostle each other as they run, but Momoshiro quickly gets tired of it, and they run in silence. Which for once, is a good thing, because Momoshiro never shuts up, so Kaidoh doesn’t mind. He lets him run with him, despite knowing the idiot wouldn’t be able to run half of his course. Ten minutes of running and Momoshiro is already starting to pant loudly. Kaidoh periodically checks up on the idiot, to see if he’s not going to pass out from running so much; what an idiot.

“Are we there yet?” asks Momoshiro out of breath. He slows down a bit to take a deep breath. Kaidoh slows down with him, but just a little bit.

“Why don’t you just quit and go home,” says Kaidoh.

“What? No way, I can finish this. No problem,” he says arrogantly, then throws his fist up in the air. “Come on, let’s go!” Momoshiro starts sprinting forwards, and makes sure to bump his shoulder into Kaidoh’s as he passes him.

Kaidoh glares at him, forget about checking if he’s gonna pass out or not, the idiot deserves to faint because he exerts himself too much. He has what’s coming to him. Half an hour later, and Momoshiro is taking in short and loud breaths, and he’s trailing behind Kaidoh by at least ten steps. Kaidoh twists his head to look behind him, just to see if he hasn’t collapsed yet, and he slows down his pace a bit so that he can call him a moron.

“Moron,” he says when he’s next to Momoshiro again.

“Shaa ... shaaa—shaddap,” he pants heavily.

Kaidoh takes out a bottle of water from his shorts, it’s small, just small enough to stuff inside the pocket of his shorts, and it was only meant for him, but he offers it to Momoshiro anyway. Momoshiro slaps it away with his hand and shakes his head.

“Don’t— _wheeze_ —need it.”

Kaidoh punches his arm, which earns him a punch in return as well. “Drink it, you idiot. I don’t want to haul your ass back home when you drop dead from dehydration.” He shoves the bottle into his face now, and Momoshiro reluctantly accepts it.

“Well,” he unscrews the cap, “if I drop dead— _wheeze_ —you’d be too weak to carry me anyway.” He chugs down the water, all of it, and finishes it with a loud ‘aaahh!’.

Kaidoh looks at him incredulously; that water was meant for him too! Ungrateful greedy bastard.

“Fshuuu,” is his only response as he starts to leave Momoshiro behind, not before ripping the empty water bottle out of his hands though. Momoshiro scrambles to catch up with him.

Another ten minutes later, and Kaidoh wishes he hadn’t given the bottle of water to the idiot, because now _he’s_ thirsty, and there’s nothing left to drink anymore. He sighs softly, and then he realizes he has stopped hearing Momoshiro’s sluggish steps behind him. He turns around, but doesn’t see Momoshiro anymore. Panic settles into his stomach, and he halts completely and immediately starts running back.

“Momoshiro!” he calls out. Did he pass out? Was it really too much for him? He even took a different route this time to give him a break, but he didn’t realize Momoshiro wasn’t even fit enough to do the easier route as well. Kaidoh looks around everywhere, but it’s dark now and harder to see, and there’s no one else around. What the hell, where is he?

“Gotcha!” Momoshiro surprise jumps on Kaidoh from the bushes next to the sidewalk, and tackles him to the ground.

“Hah! Sure scared you,” he says proudly as he straddles Kaidoh.

Kaidoh looks at him as if he’s the stupidest person on earth. “What the fuck,” is the only thing he can say. Then his surprise washes away, taken over by anger, and he punches Momoshiro’s cheek, knocking him off of him. He goes down without a word.

“You fucking idiot!” Kaidoh can’t believe he was actually worried about this idiot for a split second! He gets up and angrily starts to run away.

Momoshiro quickly picks himself up from the ground as well, and tries to go after Kaidoh. “Wait, that was a joke!” he breathes out loudly. Kaidoh ignores him and runs faster. “Mamushi!” he yells this time.

And then Kaidoh hears a loud bang behind him. He can’t help himself but look over, and this time Momoshiro has really collapsed on the ground. He slows down, and hesitates just a bit—is that idiot making a fool out of him again? But when he sees how much trouble Momoshiro has breathing, he finally runs back. He bends down to his level, on his knee, and he looks at Momoshiro, who simply glares back at him.

“You’re really an idiot, you know that?” says Kaidoh bluntly. “Fine, we’ll take a break.”

“I don’t need a break,” protests Momoshiro.

Kaidoh stares at him pointedly. “Okay.” He gets up and prepares to run again, but Momoshiro’s hand shoots out and grabs hold of his shorts. Kaidoh turns his head and looks at Momoshiro, who doesn’t say a word, but seems to find the pavement very interesting. The idiot can’t even say out loud that he needs a break. Kaidoh looks across the street, there’s a park over there with benches that they can use to rest. Maybe if he’s lucky, there’s a water fountain too.

“There’s a park across the street,” he says. Then he bends down, grabs Momoshiro’s arm and flings it across his shoulder. Momoshiro struggles against him as Kaidoh pulls him up, then gives him tiny little bitch slaps like a little kid fighting his older brother over ice cream. Kaidoh hisses and tries to dodge most of the hits, and in the process lets go of Momoshiro who stumbles away.

“I don’t need your help!” says Momoshiro and slaps him one more time.

Kaidoh hisses again, but he wraps his arm around Momoshiro’s waist and starts pulling him along. He’s either too tired, or has finally given up, to do something about it, and he slumps against Kaidoh’s body. Kaidoh tries to ignore the strong scent of sweat that’s coming from Momoshiro, and focuses on helping him cross the street and enter the park.

“You really are a freak,” mumbles Momoshiro quietly. His head is leaning against Kaidoh’s shoulder, and halfway on his chest. He doesn’t say anything about it.

“And you’re really stupid,” he says, not really caring about insulting him right now. They enter the park, and Kaidoh looks around for the nearest bench to sit on. Finding one, he dumps Momoshiro’s ass on it, and he plumps down with a protesting yelp.

“Ass,” he says while he rubs his own ass.

Kaidoh looks around and luckily spots a water fountain. He leaves Momoshiro alone, who’s too zoned out to care if Kaidoh leaves him or not, and he drinks some of the water from the fountain. Then he takes out his empty water bottle and fills it up so that he can give some to Momoshiro. He walks back and shoves it into his face again.

Momoshiro sighs heavily. “I don’t need it.”

Kaidoh hits his head with the bottle. “Drink it.”

“No!”

Tired of Momoshiro’s childish actions, Kaidoh decides to drink half of the water for himself, and then he leaves some in his mouth as he quickly bends down and crashes his lips against Momoshiro. The idiot is too shocked to move or even react to it, so he stupidly holds still. Kaidoh uses his tongue to pry his lips open, and the water transfers freely into his mouth. Momoshiro pulls back and coughs loudly, having swallowed some of it the wrong way.

“J-jerk,” says Momoshiro with a cough.

Kaidoh wipes his mouth dry, then offers the bottle to Momoshiro one more time. He finally accepts it and drinks it, while still coughing a few more times in between. Kaidoh sits next to him and looks up at the sky; it’s completely dark now, you can easily see the stars since there were no clouds in the sky. It’s getting rather chilly as well, he usually doesn’t care if he’s running and sweating, but when he’s not running, it does feel rather cold.

The water bottle plops into his lap, some of its contents spilling out and making a big stain on Kaidoh’s shorts. He’s about to punch the moron again, when Momoshiro falls against Kaidoh’s shoulder and takes a deep breath. He also looks up at the sky.

“I can’t feel my legs,” whines Momoshiro.

“Dumbass, I told you to go home.”

“No way, I can’t let you win.”

“Win with _what?_ ”

“I don’t know, does it matter?”

Kaidoh gives him a slight shove against his shoulder, just because, and Momoshiro slides closer to him during the small recoil. Momoshiro leans his head onto Kaidoh’s shoulder, and this is something that should be creeping him out, something that should have made him shove Momoshiro off of him and let him have a taste of his fists—but he doesn’t do anything. He lets him. He knows Momoshiro is exhausted, and it doesn’t really bother him all that much. Even if he reeks of sweat, even if his breath smells like something’s been rotting in there since last week; he subtly maneuvers his body a bit so that Momoshiro’s head slides onto his chest and rest on it. It’s not that bad, not when he feels calm and a sugar rush spreads through his body. It’s a good thing it’s dark, and no one’s around to see them being so friendly towards each other. Kaidoh would never admit to being friendly with Momoshiro, never.

“Where are we anyway?” asks Momoshiro after a while of silence.

“Close to your home,” says Kaidoh.

Momoshiro finally pulls his head away from his chest and looks up at him. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Then Momoshiro starts to look around, until he realizes that yes, this is _that_ park that’s close to his house. “But I thought we were jogging towards your house.”

Kaidoh grunts and looks away. “Dumbass, you didn’t even notice I changed my route. Like I’d make you run with me all the way to my house.”

“Who’s the dumbass, bastard! It’s fucking dark, how was I supposed to know?”

Kaidoh says nothing in return. He wants to go home already, or if he’s still got some time, he’ll actually finish his training—not like that will ever happen with Momoshiro next to him and annoying him. Momoshiro falls back against his shoulder, their arms touching and sliding, and he rests his head on Kaidoh’s chest again. This slight action was enough to make Kaidoh feel lightheaded and fluttery, and really calm. They stay silent again, and it’s moments like these that Kaidoh really doesn’t mind at all, because it’s nice and relaxing, and Momoshiro’s body keeps him warm in the chilly night. Momoshiro is silently plucking at the hem of Kaidoh’s shorts, and it’s actually rather annoying, but he’s quiet for now, so he doesn’t want to do anything to change that.

A breeze blows by, and Momoshiro shivers. “You’re gonna catch a cold,” Kaidoh says, breaking the silence.

“Only idiots catch colds.”

He scoffs. “Makes you perfect for it, doesn’t it?” Kaidoh finally stands up, and Momoshiro’s head slides along his chest. “Go home already,” he says, which is secret code for; _come on, I’ll walk you home._

Momoshiro grins at him, and his stomach does a flip. He quickly turns away to avoid looking at the stupid idiot. “You’ll have to carry me though,” he says smugly.

“Idiot,” says Kaidoh, but wraps an arm around Momoshiro’s waist anyway, and pulls him to his feet.

“Dumbass,” Momoshiro responds playfully, and he throws his arm over Kaidoh’s shoulder.

They walk towards Momoshiro’s home, stuck together like glue, and it only takes ten minutes, because they were really close after all. Kaidoh knows Momoshiro can walk on his own, and he knows that Momoshiro knows that he knows this as well—but neither of them say a word, nor do they separate from each other. They arrive at Momoshiro’s house, and Kaidoh’s arm finally slips away from the warm body of Momoshiro.

Momoshiro stares into Kaidoh’s eyes, a bit too long really, then he walks to his front door. “I heard snakes can catch colds too,” he calls out with a grin.

Kaidoh hisses and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “Don’t be late for practice tomorrow,” he says, ignoring Momoshiro’s stupid statement. He finally leaves, and returns to his regular jogging practice.

The next morning, Kaidoh’s one of the first people to arrive at school, and sees Momoshiro’s lonesome bike parked in the bike racks; it’s been sitting there overnight.

 

**oOo**

Kaidoh doesn’t get how they ended up in his room, sitting at his table in the middle of it, working on homework. One moment Momoshiro is throwing insults at him like usual when riding next to him as he jogs, and the next he invites himself in his house—and now he’s trying his utmost best to distract Kaidoh from homework. Homework was probably just an excuse for Momoshiro to come snooping in his room.

“You’re so booooring,” says Momoshiro. He stretches across the little table, covering all the homework with his arms, and he looks up at Kaidoh.

“Go home,” Kaidoh bites back. He tries to take his notebook from underneath Momoshiro’s elbow, to no avail, the bastard is putting more weight on it.

“School, tennis, running, and then when you get home, you do homework? Is there _anything_ fun you do _at all?_ ”

Kaidoh gives him an incredulous look, and Momoshiro suddenly turns crimson and he finally sits back up straight. “Aside from ... you know,” he mumbles uncomfortably.

This makes Kaidoh blush crimson as well; he doesn’t want to talk about that, so he ignores what Momoshiro says, and tries to get him to do his homework. “Shut up and do your homework, or I’m kicking you out.”

“God, you’re fucking boring,” says Momoshiro with a loud sigh.

Momoshiro picks up his pencil, sighs again, and tries to half-heartedly make some of his homework. He rubs the tip of his pencil across his lips while he’s in thought, and Kaidoh tries to not look like an idiot by staring at it in trance. It’s quiet, and a bit uncomfortable, what with the way Momoshiro’s knee is pressed against his, since there’s not much space underneath the little table. Kaidoh’s eyes flick over to Momoshiro’s notebook, to check if he isn’t just doodling on it, but he’s genuinely solving math problems (though he got the first three answers wrong). This sort of makes him feel weird, because Momoshiro is never this obedient with him, and never this quiet. The only thing he can hear is the scribbling of pencils on paper, and the lonesome clock hanging on his wall, the ticking ringing louder and louder each time in his ears.

It’s really too quiet; not hearing Momoshiro talk makes him uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s because otherwise, he starts to think how he’s alone with him in his room, and how their knees are still pressed up against each other under the table, and how sometimes the knuckles of his hand bumps into Momoshiro’s hand. Kaidoh tries to keep his concentration on his studies; it’s ridiculous that he could get distracted by Momoshiro not doing anything _at all_. The stupid bastard, he’s probably doing it on purpose or something.

“Say something,” he says, desperate for some kind of noise coming from the moron.

Momoshiro looks up from his homework, and bites the end of his pencil. “Huh?” he responds intelligently.

“It’s too quiet, you’re making me think you’re plotting something.”

Momoshiro glares at him. “What the hell, first you want me to shut up, and when I’m quiet you think I’m plotting something? Make up your damn mind, Mamushi.”

Kaidoh huffs. “Shut up,” he says instantly. “Uhh,” he tries to correct himself, as that was just a standard response to Momoshiro calling him Mamushi. Okay, telling Momoshiro not to shut up sounds stupid, and he feels stupid, so he doesn’t say anything at all and returns to filling out English questions.

There’s this anticipation that’s growing bigger in his stomach, he feels queasy and restless; the silence is really driving him insane. Never in a million years would he have thought he’d prefer Momoshiro’s voice over silence—not that he’ll tell him this again, because he feels stupid for asking it in the first place. Next thing you know, Momoshiro might start thinking he likes him or something, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Stupid Momoshiro.

“Yo, Kaidoh,” says Momoshiro.

Kaidoh’s heart jumps in his throat, he’s secretly glad he talked first. “What?” he says gruffly.

“Tell me the answer to question number 23.”

Kaidoh stares at him with a bored look on his face. “Do it yourself.”

Momoshiro leans over the table to scan his notebook, he doesn’t realize Kaidoh is working on English, not math. “Come on, don’t be a dick, tell me.”

“I’m doing English, you moron.”

Momoshiro sits back down. “Oh. Well, hurry up then so I can copy it.”

When Kaidoh moves his arm so that one of the notebooks on the table falls off, Momoshiro is the one to pick it up, being a very nice guy and all (sarcasm), and then he looks at the inside.

“Oh you asshole, you’ve already completed math during class!” he exclaims.

Kaidoh rolls his eyes; he was hoping to avoid having Momoshiro copy from him. He reaches for his notebook and grabs the cover and pulls. Momoshiro pulls back as well, not giving it up. They end up pulling and pulling and then Momoshiro ends up sprawled across the table, knocking down a bunch of pencils, books and notebooks to the ground.

“Ow,” he whines.

“Idiot,” Kaidoh mutters. “Get off my table.”

Momoshiro lifts his body a bit and gives Kaidoh a determined stupid look, the one that says he’s going to try his best to annoy Kaidoh now. “No,” he says. Then he turns his entire body around, so that his back is on the table now, and he crosses his arms and pulls up his legs; he’s completely covered the table.

Kaidoh growls. “Get off, you moron.”

Momoshiro glares at Kaidoh, which is a bit hard to do when you’re upside down, but he tries anyway. “Make me,” he says.

Which is code for: _stop doing homework, and do me._

Not that Kaidoh was thinking about that or something, he really just wants to finish his homework. He doesn’t have much of a choice either way—Momoshiro grabs his shirt and pulls his face down to his, so that their lips clash together, their teeth also clicking in a rather painful way. Kaidoh muffles out a groan of pain, but is distracted when Momoshiro shows off just how hard he can suck. It feels weird, to do this upside down, he can feel Momoshiro’s nose pricking into his neck, and his breath is sort of ticklish and warm.

Momoshiro laughs against his lips. “Strawberry again, huh?”

Kaidoh can feel his cheeks grow hot. “Shut up.”

Momoshiro takes advantage of Kaidoh’s open mouth, and his tongue is inside of him. That electricity returns, sparkling madly in the pit of his stomach, and his ears are ringing again. He wonders if his hair might end up looking like Momoshiro’s if this continues. Gently, Momoshiro swipes his tongue against Kaidoh’s, it feels so squishy, and it makes him feel dizzy yet relaxed at the same time. He also notices his breath doesn’t stink this time, but that could also be because his strawberry flavoured chapstick is covering up the smell, or perhaps he’s so hypnotized by Momoshiro’s tongue, he doesn’t care to notice.

Momoshiro’s hands finally slide off of his shirt, and now they’re clutching the sides of his shirt, on his waist, which feels a bit awkward because of their positions, but Kaidoh doesn’t do anything to shake him off. No, he doesn’t do anything besides rub his tongue against Momoshiro’s wet one, as well as keep down any kind of weird noise that threatens to emerge from his throat. He can’t let Momoshiro know he’s enjoying this or anything. He pushes Momoshiro’s tongue back, and forces it to go back into his own mouth, and there he battles with him for territory, and it gives him this electrifying kick to do this to him.

Then Momoshiro pulls away, Kaidoh’s tongue slides out of his mouth and that makes his arm feel like pudding and his heart is set on fire. Momoshiro twists his body around and sits up straight, this time at eye-level with Kaidoh, and he’s back with his lips again, sucking and breathing harshly into his face. Kaidoh returns the favour and sucks hard as well, pressing deeper against Momoshiro just because he can. Momoshiro clutches the side of his shirt again, and he lifts Kaidoh up higher, against his chest, deeper against his mouth, and Kaidoh feels all whoozy and his room is spinning. Momoshiro leaves his lips, and he grunts out in disappointment, but is immediately shut up when he realizes where Momoshiro’s lips end up at.

They’re on the side of his neck, sucking so hard he knows he’s going to get a bruise tomorrow. But he can’t do anything about it, because it’s paralyzed him to the core, all these warm and fuzzy feelings are flowing out of Momoshiro’s mouth like spasms and muscle contractions. All he can do is let out tiny little gasps and scratch the back of Momoshiro’s head.

There’s a knock on his door, and the magic is broken and he immediately pushes Momoshiro off of him in the blink of an eye. The boy topples off of the table and lands in all of the homework with a loud thud. His door opens and his mom happily walks in.

“Oh my, I guess you’re done with homework?” she asks sweetly, carrying a tray of drinks.

Either she’s being incredibly nice to Kaidoh by pretending not to notice, or she’s genuinely an airhead, and can’t seem to connect the dots between his room in dismay, his flushed cheeks and ears, with Momoshiro on his back on the ground, his legs half-way on top of the table, looking equally as embarrassed.

Kaidoh’s mouth is open, but he doesn’t really know what to say that could explain the situation. So he doesn’t. He gets up and takes the tray from her hands. “T-thank you,” he stutters, and hopes to god there’s no bruise on his neck.

“Alright, be nice to each other, boys,” she says, then exits the room.

Kaidoh lets out a sigh in relief, and slumps down in front of the table, setting the tray on top of it. He shoves Momoshiro’s leg off of it with a huff.

Momoshiro clears his throat, then sits up straight. “You know, I should ... uhh ... yeah. Go home.”

Kaidoh doesn’t protest at all when Momoshiro collects his homework and leaves Kaidoh’s room. The two drinks still sit on top of his table.

He doesn’t know what to tell his English teacher the next day when she asks why his homework is all crumpled up and has ink stains smudged all over it.

 

**oOo**

“Momo-chan-senpai!” says Horio.

Momoshiro stops practicing against Kaidoh. “Yo, what’s up, Horio?” he greets him cheerfully.

Kaidoh swings his racket on his shoulder and waits for them to be finished with talking.

“This might seem really weird, Momo-chan-senpai, but there’s this friend of mine ... and well ... she wants to know if you’re single.”

Kaidoh who was acting so cool and aloof on the courts now stumbles over his own two feet, but catches himself in time before anyone can notice his stupid flailing.

“Ehh, hehe,” says Momoshiro kind of nervous. “Single, you say?” He glances back at Kaidoh who merely crosses his arms and huffs.

“Yeah, she says she really likes you.”

“Is that so?” He starts laughing like the arrogant pig he is, it’s annoying Kaidoh and he just wants to hurry up and finish their practice game.

“Aha, so are you?” presses Horio.

“Well—” A tennis ball flies by his face, missing his nose by mere centimeters, and flies right over Horio’s head.

“Stop your stupid chick talk, or I’ll make you run laps!” yells Kaidoh.

“Y-yes!” screeches Horio and he runs off.

Momoshiro clasps his tongue at Kaidoh. “Asshole.” Then he picks the tennis ball up, throws it in the air, and smashes against it to resume their game.

Momoshiro won’t let Kaidoh live it down, that there’s some girl out there asking if he’s single. He keeps saying how he wonders who she is, and what she looks like, and he hopes it’ll be a cute girl, who’s shorter than him. Kaidoh only responds by hissing, and hissing, and hissing. He feels sick to his stomach, something is making him feel clenched up and tight. He doesn’t want to listen to Momoshiro gushing about some girl.

“Oh you know, if I start dating her, I betcha she’d make lunch for me!” says Momoshiro as they lock up.

Dating her? Once he starts _dating_ her? Kaidoh tries to control the anger that is threatening to spiral out of control, to not break Momoshiro’s nose while he’s still grinning stupidly at him. He takes in a deep breath, and lets it out in a hiss instead.

“Yo Mamushi, you’ve been hissing all day, what’s wrong with you.”

Kaidoh wants to turn around and yell at him— _he’s_ the damn problem. Acting all happy and stuff that some stupid girl likes him, and how he’s gonna get some lunch from her. Yeah well, he made lunch for him too, ungrateful bastard! Not that he knew, but still. It angers him.

“Do you think she’s in my class?” he then asks, completely ignoring Kaidoh’s hissing. “Or perhaps she saw me practicing on the courts, and couldn’t help but be awed by my awesomeness.”

Kaidoh grits his teeth and he slumps away after locking up the storage room. The room in which he didn’t enter with Momoshiro today, because he’s too busy daydreaming about some girl he’s never met.

“Hehe, I’ll have to ask Horio who she is tomorrow.”

Kaidoh thinks he can get away from Momoshiro’s rambling, but he follows him again with his bike, riding next to him, and he won’t. Shut. Up.

“And then we’ll go on dates, like to get some burgers or something. And she’ll be standing there, waiting for me, and I’ll be ten minutes late, but she’s the one who apologizes! And then we hold hands and go get some burgers.”

He tries hard to tune it out, mostly because he’s feeling nauseous and sick, and Momoshiro is making it worse, but it’s not working. He can hear everything, he can hear how happy Momoshiro talks about it, how exited he is, and Kaidoh feels worse with every single second that goes by. It’s like he ate one of Momoshiro’s horrible hamburgers, and it’s rotting in his stomach, oozing poison through his veins.

“She won’t care I eat junkfood at all!” he says happily.

It’s getting harder to breathe now, and Kaidoh’s running becomes sluggish and uneven. The feeling in his stomach takes over him, he feels like there’s no escape from it.

“And I’ll drop her off at her front door, and she’ll look at me all cutely, and then I bend down to kiss her.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Kaidoh furiously whirls around, Momoshiro almost crashes into him with his bike, and swerves right by him. Kaidoh angrily pulls back his fist, and he punches Momoshiro in the face— ** _hard_** —he can feel bone breaking under his knuckles, but he doesn’t fucking care, because he’s going to throw up from his sickness, and all he cares about is hurting Momoshiro.

Momoshiro falls to the ground, his nose is completely bloodied, and his bike falls somewhere on the road. He clutches his bleeding nose and looks up at Kaidoh with huge and shocked eyes. Kaidoh says nothing, doesn’t yell an insult, doesn’t hiss, but merely narrows his eyes at him; his dead and completely black eyes said it all for him. He turns around and runs away. He doesn’t care Momoshiro’s left alone on the ground, bleeding from his nose. He doesn’t care he might have broken it—that fucking moron deserves all that’s coming to him.

He hates Momoshiro.

 

**oOo**

“Momo-senpai, what happened?” asks Echizen.

Momoshiro stuffs his hands into his shorts and shuffles on his spot. “I don’t know,” he says, and his answer is directed towards the snake across him, standing as far away from him as possible.

It was the first thing he saw when he came onto the courts; the white medical bandages plastered all over Momoshiro’s nose. It’s obviously broken, and Kaidoh’s nausea acts up again, and it feels even worse than last night when he couldn’t even sleep because of it. He tries to make himself feel better by telling that Momoshiro had it coming, he’d been begging for it, really. But it doesn’t make him feel better, and he goes to the bathroom stalls and locks himself up, and throws up inside of the toilet bowl. He falls down and hugs the bowl with his arms, in case he’ll puke again. He breathes heavily, and everything is spinning, and there’s poison brewing inside of his stomach, and he just wants to go away somewhere, somewhere where it won’t hurt. Where Momoshiro is not there to hurt him.

For once in his life, he skips practice, despite being the team’s captain.

He’s been sitting in the bathroom stall for over an hour already, and he’s feeling just a little bit better. Enough to stand up and get out, and go home. He exits the bathroom, and he notices everyone left school already. He should really lock up the storage room for the tennis club, but can’t seem to give flying fuck for now, so he heads straight towards the gates.

Kaidoh’s heart literally skips a beat when he sees Momoshiro’s back standing at the exit, and there’s a girl with black hair in front of him. His legs run like hell and he hides behind a pillar so he can’t see him. It’s probably that girl, the one that Horio talked about yesterday about liking Momoshiro. The nausea is back again, and he tries his hardest to not puke—not in front of Momoshiro. He can’t do that, not now. Not when he’s there.

“And well,” the girl says shyly and fiddles with her fingers. “W-what’s your answer?”

Kaidoh’s ears perk up immediately; indeed, what is Momoshiro’s answer? Judging by yesterday, he’d be eager to say yes and go on his stupid burger date and kiss the stupid girl and be all happy and leave Kaidoh alone. Forever.

Momoshiro bows his head down in respect. “I’m sorry. I’m sort of ... already taken.”

Taken by who, fucking jackass, is what Kaidoh wants to scream at him, but he stays still.

“Oh, I-I see,” says the girl while her face turns red. “I’m sorry to have bothered you then!” She quickly runs away, and he can hear Momoshiro sigh.

So what does that mean, that Momoshiro’s taken? He’s already got someone? But who? Did he mean him, Kaidoh? The chicken that’s hiding behind that pillar right now, the one that broke his nose? But it can’t be, it’s not like they ever ... talked about it, and it’s not like he ever agreed to something. Despite all this, he does feel immensely better knowing Momoshiro won’t be kissing some stupid girl now.

“Oi, Kaidoh, you suck at hiding,” says Momoshiro without even turning back to look at him.

Kaidoh swallows and steps away from the pillar, as if he wasn’t hiding there all this time at all. What should he do now? Apologize for breaking his nose? Apologize for being such a douchebag because he was angry some girl liked him? Ask him just who he means when he says he’s ‘taken’? Kaidoh steps closer to Momoshiro, his back still showing, each step takes a tremendous amount of courage, he’s shaking violently and his heart is beating way too fast for his own good.

He finally stands next to Momoshiro, but doesn’t look at him, doesn’t say anything. He’s too much of a chicken.

Say something Kaidoh, anything. Apologize for breaking his nose. Say you’re sorry. Say it. Say it, say it, say it! _Now._ Kaidoh opens up his mouth, which takes a lot of effort, and he tries to say the words. The words that meant he’s sorry for breaking Momoshiro’s nose. That he’s sorry he acted like an ass. But it’s hard, it’s really hard, but he does it anyway.

“I’m sorry.”

Momoshiro turns his head towards Kaidoh and raises his eyebrows. “For what?” he asks.

Kaidoh grits his teeth. “For breaking your nose.”

“Aaannd?” he presses on.

“And ... for being a jackass.”

Momoshiro happily slaps Kaidoh’s back. “Well, I guess I can forgive you this one time!” He laughs, and Kaidoh’s ears are ringing again and the nausea is slowly going away. “After I break your legs of course,” he says as a threat. Whether that’s real or not, Kaidoh doesn’t really care.

“Uhm,” Kaidoh starts. “What did you mean by that?”

“Mean by what?”

“That you’re taken?”

Momoshiro’s now the one that has an incredulous look on his face, which slowly morphs into an angry frown. “Well Kaidoh, _am I not?_ You tell me.”

“I ... I ...” Kaidoh doesn’t know what to say. What does Momoshiro want him to say? What does he? He looks into Momoshiro’s determined eyes, still waiting for an answer, and Kaidoh loses it.

He pulls the idiot close to him, and kisses him on the lips. It’s a small peck, and unlike their previous encounters, this one wasn’t done because it felt good. He pulls back, his face completely red, and his heart is throbbing. He looks up at Momoshiro, who’s grinning wildly, also sporting some red cheeks.

“Well, I guess that’s that. Let’s go get some burgers, you owe me some.”

“Okay.”

It might seem completely crazy, unbelievable, but he might, perhaps, almost, maybe, sort of, not hate Momoshiro completely. _Maybe._


	3. Denial

“Momo!” yells Eiji.

Momoshiro smiles and waves at him. “Eiji-senpai! Good to see you!”

“I didn’t know you’d be going to this high school, you should have told me or something!” says Eiji with a pout.

“Well, I sort of wanted it to be a surprise.” Which was a complete lie; he did it in the spur of the moment as soon as he realized which high school Kaidoh had picked out. They are freshmen now.

“Haha, this is great! You can join the tennis club and it’ll be just like Seigaku!”

“Does Oishi-senpai go to this school as well?” he asks, because he’s curious now.

Eiji sighs and looks sad. “No, he went to a better high school. You know, he wants to be a doctor and all that. I begged him to come to this one, but he didn’t.”

“Well, that’s too bad then. We should all get together sometime and play some tennis!”

“Sounds like fun!”

Then Eiji looks at Momoshiro with a thoughtful look, as if he was studying his face or something. “What?” he asks.

“I don’t know, your face looks kind of different.”

Momoshiro cups his face arrogantly and starts showing all of his different angles to Eiji. “Well yeah, I grew up more handsome, of course!”

“Haha, no that’s not it ... it’s .... Oh, your nose! It’s crooked! What happened?”

Momoshiro scratches the back of his head as he recalls the memory. “I got punched several months ago, broke my nose. Hurt like a bitch.”

“Oh that’s horrible. Who punched you?”

“Good morning, Eiji-senpai,” says the voice belonging to Kaidoh. He appears behind Momoshiro, wearing the same high school uniform as they are, and he bows his head politely. Momoshiro feels sort of jealous; he’d never get that sort of treatment from Kaidoh.

“Kaidoh! You too!?” says Eiji excitedly.

“Yes, I applied for this school first, Momoshiro simply followed me afterwards.”

Momoshiro pulls at Kaidoh’s brand new uniform. “What did you say, Mamushi!?”

Kaidoh butts his head against his. “I said you followed me, which you did! Stalker!”

“I did not!” He _so_ totally did.

Eiji starts to laugh. “You both didn’t change at all! Hahaha!”

Momoshiro and Kaidoh ignore Eiji, as they keep growling and hissing and pulling each other’s shirts like always.

“Ne, Kaidoh, do you know who broke Momo’s nose?”

Kaidoh immediately lets go of Momoshiro’s shirt, then he starts shuffling on the spot all awkward and uncomfortable. Heh, serves that bastard right.

“Uhm,” he starts hesitantly.

Momoshiro puts his arm around Kaidoh’s shoulders, and ignores the urge to pull him even closer as he does, and starts grinning at him. “Yes Kaidoh, please tell Eiji-senpai who broke my nose. I’m interested in finding out as well.”

“Shut up, asshole,” he grunts.

“You wanna go, huh!?” yells Momoshiro back into his face.

Kaidoh wrestles himself free, then gives Momoshiro a very dirty look, and turns towards Eiji. “It was me.”

Eiji’s eyes grow even larger. “No way— _you_ broke Momoshiro’s nose!? Oh, we should have never left you guys alone! I knew it was a bad idea!”

Momoshiro wrinkles his nose, because he sort of wants to correct Eiji that the reason Kaidoh broke his nose was not because of a fight that had escalated since there was no one around to stop them, but because of something more ... delicate than that. But he doesn’t want to admit this, not in front of Kaidoh himself, or in front of himself as well, because that would be like admitting he’s Kaidoh’s boyfriend or something—and that’s just _gay_.

“Well, it’s alright now, isn’t it, Kaidoh?” says Momoshiro in the hopes of changing the subject, and he pulls Kaidoh close again. The snake doesn’t protest this time.

“Uhh, yeah.”

Momoshiro can tell Kaidoh feels awkward, because his body feels stiff and rigid. Not like usual where he would naturally slump against him, and bask in each other’s body warmth. Then again, they did that when they’re alone, and certainly not in front of people they knew.

“And he’s deeeeply sorry for what he’s done, right?” he adds as a joke.

Kaidoh simply elbows him in the stomach, and Momoshiro goes ‘oof!’ and lets Kaidoh go.

“It’s nice to see you again, Eiji-senpai, I guess we’ll see each other on the courts soon enough,” says Kaidoh, then he politely bows again (why can’t that bastard ever be polite to _him?_ ) and leaves the two alone.

“Ne, Momo, why did Kaidoh break your nose? Did he really lose his mind or something?”

“Let’s just say I had it coming.” Then he puts his finger to his mouth in a childish way. “But don’t tell him that! Okay?”

Eiji simply laughs, and they walk towards the school building side by side.

He’s disappointed to know that Kaidoh and him are not in the same class.

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro is a friendly guy, so he has no problems making friends with his new classmates. He wonders if Kaidoh will get any friends with that scary looking face of his. He doesn’t recall him having friends outside of the tennis club. Hmm, he’ll have to tease him about that later. Either way, he’s talking with some of his classmates during lunch—three guys. Yamada, the tallest, Souichi, the shortest, and Tanaka, the fattest. Then he suddenly remembers that he’d eat lunch with Kaidoh. Well, okay, they didn’t really promise anything, but when Kaidoh offhandedly mentioned what he’ll have for lunch today, Momoshiro decided to eat it. His lunch that is.

“Sorry guys, I forgot I promised to eat lunch with someone!” he says with a laugh.

Yamada looks up at him with a smile. “Oooh, who?”

“They’re in a different class, you don’t know them.”

“Is it your girlfriend?” asks Souichi excitedly.

Momoshiro scratches the back of his head; he doesn’t really know how to answer that one. Kaidoh certainly isn’t a girl, and he’s certainly no girlfriend. Even so, he’s still not his boyfriend either, eww, he’s not gay. Yeah, Kaidoh’s not his boyfriend, he’s _taken_ by Kaidoh. Wait, that sounds even worse, like Kaidoh owns him or something. Okay, he’s _with_ Kaidoh. That ... doesn’t sound good either. Exclusive kiss buddies? Ew, yuck. Why is this so hard?

“Uhmm,” he says hesitantly.

“It so is! I can’t believe you already have a girlfriend. Geez, we just started high school and you’re already ahead of us.”

“Well, I’ve known them since middle school,” says Momoshiro. Wait, why is he talking about Kaidoh like he’s his girlfriend?

“Waaah, I’m so jealous! Have you guys kissed already?” asks Souichi. Yamada looks on with interest as well.

Momoshiro can’t stop the blush from appearing on his cheeks. “Y-yeah,” he says awkwardly.

“I need to get myself a girlfriend, Momo-san is already kissing his girlfriend every day, that’s so unfair,” says Tanaka bored.

Momoshiro’s blush grows deeper; because he sort of _has_ been kissing Kaidoh almost every day. Damnit. He’s not his girlfriend! Or boyfriend! And he’s not gay!

“What’s her name?”

And Momoshiro looks at them perplexed. He can’t stop himself from saying; “Kaoru-chan.”

Oh, Kaidoh’s gonna beat him up for that one.

 

**oOo**

“Kaoru-chan.”

Kaidoh stops eating his lunch, and he turns his head to give Momoshiro a look of disbelief. They’re sitting on the rooftop, eating lunch together. “What did you just call me?”

Momoshiro leans against the wall, and tries to steal some of Kaidoh’s delicious maki rolls (which have improved recently). “Kaoru-chan. That’s what I’m gonna call you from now on.”

“The hell you are!” He yanks his bento box back.

“Yup, I’ve decided, Kaoru-chan is permanent.”

“You are just asking for another broken nose,” threatens Kaidoh.

“Then I can at least tell people, when they ask who I’m eating lunch with, ‘Oh, with Kaoru-chan!’ and it won’t make me look so gay because it’s a girl’s name.”

“You _are_ gay!” Kaidoh hisses.

“No I’m not!” he protests.

Kaidoh leans forward, his arm behind Momoshiro’s neck, and yanking him close so that their lips meet. It never fails to make him feel hot and have electricity fizzle through his body, sparking him over and over again. Kaidoh shows off just how good he is at making Momoshiro feel like mush by moving his mouth over his, just the way he likes it. This time, Kaidoh tastes like lemon, he must like changing chapstick flavours. He forgets why they’re kissing in the first place, and he responds to Kaidoh’s touch like he usually does, and moves with him, exchanging saliva and grabbing at his back and meshing their bodies together. Kaidoh then roughly shoves him away—just when he really got into the mood.

Momoshiro growls. “That doesn’t prove anything,” he says childishly. He quickly looks around if there was no one else on the rooftop but them, luckily the coast is clear. Then he smiles widely at Kaidoh. “You can call me Momo-chan!”

“Takeshi,” Kaidoh says straight forward.

“Huh?”

“I’ll call you Takeshi.”

Momoshiro wonders when’s the last time someone who wasn’t part of his family called him by his first name, and he can’t seem to place anyone at all, so it feels strange. He shrugs.

“Do whatever you want, I’m still gonna call you Kaoru-chan.”

Kaidoh narrows his eyes. “Take-tan.”

Momoshiro snorts loudly. “Oh, that’s a good one, Kaoru-chan, keep it up, because calling me with –tan sure makes you look less like a girl! Perfect!”

This makes Kaidoh’s cheek turn red, and Momoshiro is loving every second of it; a blushing Mamushi is an adorable Mamushi. Not like he’ll ever say this out loud, and especially not towards Kaidoh himself. He resists the urge to continue their make-out from minutes ago, he wants to squeeze and hug him to pieces—but that’s too affectionate, not to mention out of character. He’s not the girl, Kaidoh is. And it’s not like they cuddle or anything.

“Fine,” says Kaidoh gruffly.

Momoshiro looks dumbstruck. “Seriously?”

“Only if you’ll stop calling me Mamushi.”

Ouch, that’s a hard one. The nickname Mamushi was basically hard-wired into his brain, and it just sort of flips out of his mouth every once in a while, he doesn’t do it consciously. How can he control something he doesn’t do on purpose? But if it makes Kaidoh happy, he’ll try to prevent himself from saying it, for now. He’s sure he’ll fail at it though.

“Deal,” he says with a smile and he sticks out his hand towards Kaidoh.

Kaidoh slaps it away and starts eating again.

Regardless of what they call each other now, the most used nicknames for each other would still have to be ‘idiot’, ‘dumbass’, ‘asshole’ and ‘moron’, and that’s not likely to be changing anytime soon.

He forgets to tease Kaidoh about having no friends in his class.

 

**oOo**

“ _Takeshi!_ Watch where you’re going!”

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, _Kaoru-chan!_ “

Eiji looks at the both of them with a very confused look on his face. They’re playing doubles against Eiji and their new team captain on the courts (they’re already regulars of course), and Kaidoh just had to yell at him for bumping into him.

“Ne, I don’t think it’s very nice to use each other’s first names as insults,” he pipes in.

But Momoshiro and Kaidoh don’t hear Eiji, as they’re bumping heads against each other, and getting ready to have another brawl and completely forget about their tennis match.

“You play tennis like a little girl, _Kaoru-chan_ ,” bites Momoshiro.

“Fshuuu, my tennis is much better than yours, you play like a blind moron, _Takeshi_.”

“Say that to my face, dumbass!”

“I _am_ saying it to your face, idiot!”

“Hey, are those two alright?” asks their new captain, a third year.

Eiji scratches the back of his head, he’s not really sure. “I think so. They’ve always been like that.”

“Are they really that good at doubles though?”

“Well, yeah. Surprisingly. They might fight each other, but they know each other’s moves pretty well. They’re very good double partners.”

Momoshiro punches Kaidoh. The captain does not look convinced.

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro isn’t ignoring Kaidoh. Well, maybe just a little bit. Last time when he tried to steal some of his lunch, Kaidoh locked him up on the rooftop. And he’s not about to forget that, so he won’t have lunch with him anymore. Hence why he’s eating lunch with his three classmates. Stupid Kaidoh.

“Hey Momo-san, are you going to get home-made chocolate from your girlfriend this weekend?”

“Am I what now?” asks Momoshiro, who is pulled out of his thoughts of stabbing Kaidoh with a laser beam.

“Are you going to get chocolate on Valentine’s Day from your girlfriend?” Souichi repeats.

Oh. Chocolate? On Valentine’s Day? That sounds so ... normal. Momoshiro is not normal. And Kaidoh is not a girl.

“I don’t think so,” he says.

Yamada looks surprised. “What, why not? Isn’t it normal for your girlfriend to give you some?”

Momoshiro wants to tell them Kaidoh is not his girlfriend, and even if he was, he’d still not be getting any. Not like he even wants some stupid chocolate from the snake—he won’t even let him eat his lunch! And he’s ignoring Kaidoh for now, for being a dumbass.

“Well, we’re sort of fighting ...”

“Oh ...” says Souichi sadly. “I know! Why don’t you make up with her on Valentine’s Day? Give her a card or something?”

A card? For Kaidoh? _Don’t make me laugh._

“No way, that’s just so ... girly.” And Momoshiro is anything but girly. He’s manly.

“Really? I see a lot of guys giving their girlfriends things on Valentine’s Day as well. Like roses and stuff.”

Momoshiro starts to imagine giving a bouquet of roses to Kaidoh, sitting on his knee, and presenting it like a diamond ring. That’s just too much, so Momoshiro starts to laugh. And then he promptly stops, because what the heck; why is he imagining things like that? Kaidoh is not his girlfriend! Or boyfriend! They don’t _do_ Valentine’s Day. They do each other.

Eww, that sounds even nastier.

“Fine, I’ll buy the damn card,” he mutters after some more pestering by Souichi and Yamada.

Momoshiro stops by a grocery store, and spends a good hour to find a card that didn’t look too gay. He eventually settles on a plain blank card with a hamburger on it.

 

**oOo**

Alright, so it started out with Momoshiro ignoring Kaidoh, for something he can’t even remember anymore—but now the snake is ignoring _him!_ For three whole days, they’ve done nothing but sneer at each other, and there was no after math of sucking face. Momoshiro can’t believe himself when he says it, but he sort of, kind of, perhaps, might miss Kaidoh. Not him as a person of course, but as a fight buddy. And a kiss buddy, but that sounds gay, so he settles on fight buddy.

But he really wants to kiss again though.

Weekend arrives, and Momoshiro knows it’s Valentine’s Day. For some reason, he thinks Kaidoh might call him up, for some kind of secret training so that he won’t look stupid when he secretly hands over his chocolates to Momoshiro. Yeah, something like that. But after staring at his phone for two hours, he realizes he’s being stupid, and Kaidoh’s being stupid, and he picks up the phone himself and dials Kaidoh’s number.

“Kaidoh,” says Kaidoh when he picks up.

Momoshiro tries to ignore the slight amount of happiness he gets from hearing his voice again. “Yo, Kaoru-chan.”

He can hear Kaidoh slowly hiss at the embarrassing nickname, but he doesn’t say anything else, and Momoshiro is feeling good. “Let’s go play street tennis.” It’s the only excuse Momoshiro currently has in his mind. Playing tennis. Yeah, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

“Okay,” says Kaidoh surprisingly. Weren’t they ignoring each other?

What the hell was he thinking inviting Kaidoh to street tennis in this freezing weather? He can barely take out his hands out of his pockets, let alone hold a racket. Momoshiro kicks a pebble on the road as he waits for Kaidoh to arrive at the small little tennis court. It’s cold, but he’s dressed up warmly at least. His stupid card is stuffed somewhere in his bag, and he doesn’t know whether he’ll give it to Kaidoh or not. Didn’t he buy it in the first place because he wanted to stop ignoring Kaidoh? If that’s the reason, then he doesn’t really need to give him the card anymore, because Kaidoh is running towards him at his usual jogging pace, his tennis bag thrown across his shoulder.

Well, they’re definitely not ignoring each other anymore. But there’s still no kissing, and Momoshiro tries his best not to hop over to Kaidoh and kiss him right there. Because there’s people around, you know.

“You run like a girl,” says Momoshiro. He’s gotta say something, right?

“Funny, you hit like one.”

“Okay Mamushi, that’s it—let’s settle this on the court.”

Kaidoh hisses angrily, a different kind of hiss. “Don’t call me Mamushi.”

Oh right, he forgot about that one. He knew he was going to screw up sooner or later. Momoshiro tries to play it cool by ignoring what Kaidoh says, and he throws the tennis ball up in the air to serve. Kaidoh quickly pulls out his racket and hits the ball back. They both shut up and play each other seriously.

“That was _so_ in!” yells Momoshiro after ending the game with his awesome dunk smash.

“No you idiot, it was out of bounds. Look, you can see the mark you left behind with your idiotic smash,” says Kaidoh and he taps his foot somewhere on the line to indicate where it went out of bounds.

“That’s in!” cries out Momoshiro.

“It’s out!”

Momoshiro stomps over to Kaidoh’s side, and he looks at the mark that was left behind by his dunk smash.

“That’s completely, 100 percent in!”

Kaidoh pushes Momoshiro aside. “That’s out, you moron!”

Momoshiro shoves himself against Kaidoh as well. “No it’s not, it’s inside of the white line.”

Kaidoh retaliates, and Momoshiro tries to hide his smirk. “You really do play like a blind moron—that’s out!”

They get into a shoving fight, and Momoshiro feels warm again. Not because he missed fighting with Kaidoh, but because it’s cold, and making him move around makes him feel warmer. And because he missed fighting with Kaidoh.

Somewhere along the line they end up on the ground, and Momoshiro’s on top of Kaidoh, and kissing him. His lips feel completely dry and cold because of the weather, and it’s not pleasant at all—yet his toes are curling up and his heart pumps more blood to his cold and flamed cheeks. At least he tastes like strawberry. He feels all lightheaded and stuff, and is filled up with a luke-warm sort of feeling when Kaidoh’s tongue starts touching his. Well, maybe he did miss kissing Kaidoh too. Just a little bit.

This doesn’t make him gay.

“Get off, it’s cold,” Kaidoh finally says.

Momoshiro thinks of a great witty comeback, something along the lines of ‘let me heat you up’, but shuts his mouth, because that sounds gay. They sit on the cold ground, huddled up next to each other for warmth. He wonders how normal couples spend Valentine’s Day together. Do they play street tennis when it’s freezing as well? Not that he and Kaidoh were a couple or anything. Definitely not.

“Hey, I got something for you,” says Momoshiro. He remembers the stupid card that’s stuffed at the bottom of his bag. He gets up to pull it out, and walks back to Kaidoh again. “Here.” He shoves the card into his face.

Kaidoh grabs it with shaking and red fingers. “What’s this?”

“It’s a fucking card, you dumbass.”

“Oh.” Kaidoh stares at it, as if it’s contaminated or something. Like Momoshiro did something funny with it.

“Well, read it.”

“Oh,” he says again. He slowly opens up the blank card with the hamburger on it. Momoshiro didn’t expect Kaidoh to read it out loud though, in a very monotone-like voice. “Roses are red, violets are blue, you stink, and your tennis does too. Happy Valentine’s Day, Kaoru-chan.”

“Good one, right? Took me all night to come up with that one! I’ve got some more, wanna hear ‘em?”

Kaidoh simply glares at him with the look of death. Momoshiro grins stupidly, and he hopes he didn’t piss Kaidoh off even more. It was a joke, he can tell, right? Kaidoh’s death glare doesn’t change, okay so maybe it was a bad joke. The snake gets up, perhaps to punch Momoshiro, or tackle him to the ground (and maybe do some more kissing), but he doesn’t, he walks over to his own bag. He searches through it, and Momoshiro leans over to see what he’s doing, but his back is blocking his sight, and then he throws something at Momoshiro’s head.

“Ow, what the hell!” The object falls into Momoshiro’s lap, and he stares at it. It’s a pink bag, tied close with a girly little ribbon. Momoshiro picks it up between his index finger and thumb while rubbing the back of his head. “What’s this?” he asks curiously, inspecting the bag.

“It’s definitely not some stupid card,” says Kaidoh.

Momoshiro gives him a dry look. “I can see that, idiot.”

“I didn’t make it for you,” Kaidoh starts to say. Momoshiro unties the girly ribbon. “My mom was making some for my dad, and she had some leftovers.” He’s talking fast, and not looking at Momoshiro.

Momoshiro opens the pink bag and looks inside; it’s filled with little heart shaped chocolates. He doesn’t really know what to say; what is there even left to say after Kaidoh gives him home-made chocolate on Valentine’s Day? Sure, he bought him a card too, but he didn’t expect Kaidoh to actually give him something as well. Okay, maybe he was hoping he would just a little bit. Just a teeny tiny bit.

“Uhh. Thanks,” says Momoshiro slowly. He takes one of the chocolates out of the bag and pops it into his mouth, since he doesn’t really know what else to say anymore. The chocolate starts to melt on his tongue, it tastes sweet. He wonders what it would be like to kiss Kaidoh with chocolate in his mouth.

Kaidoh sits down next to him, and steals one of the chocolates out of his bag, and takes a bite out of it.

Momoshiro pulls the bag away and hugs it possessively. “Hey, these are mine!”

“So, I made them.”

Momoshiro’s eyes grow large and he stares at Kaidoh. Then Kaidoh stares at him with wide eyes as well.

“Uhm, I mean, I helped make them,” he says quickly. He tries to hide his face by digging it into his jacket, but Momoshiro sees his cherry red cheeks. Alright, they were already red from the cold weather, but he’s sure they’re even more so now.

Momoshiro stares at the girly pink bag in his hands, then looks back at Kaidoh, then stares back at the bag again. Not thinking clearly anymore, Momoshiro takes out another chocolate and puts it into his mouth. He leans closer to Kaidoh, who finally turns his head to look at him.

“What are you—” He’s silenced when Momoshiro puts his mouth on his.

The chocolate starts to melt onto his tongue again, and Momoshiro pries Kaidoh’s unwilling lips open, and he slides his chocolate covered tongue against Kaidoh’s. They both shiver, whether due to the cold, or due to something else, it’s not quite clear. But they lick each other clean, the sweet chocolate swimming around in their mouths, it’s giving him a sugar rush. It tastes like strawberry chocolate. He feels a bit dizzy, like he’s been eating too many hamburgers even though they taste so good. And Kaidoh’s tasting really good right now too, so Momoshiro doesn’t stop, he hungrily devours him whole, his hands clutching at his jacket and pulling him close. There’s so much saliva being exchanged, it feels hot and wet and sticky and very sweet, neither of them willing to stop.

When the sweet taste of chocolate has finally dissolved, they pull apart. Momoshiro feels like he’s high on some kind of drug, and he briefly wonders if Kaidoh put something strange inside of the chocolate, because right now, Kaidoh’s looking extremely tasty to him. The way his lips are smeared with spit, and some chocolate, the way his red cheeks match his tired eyes ... Butterflies are flying around in his stomach, and he feels goose bumps rise on his arms. Momoshiro finally looks away from Kaidoh.

Is he really gay?

“Thanks ... for the card,” mumbles Kaidoh all of the sudden.

If he knew he was going to be making out with Kaidoh’s home-made chocolate he would have given him a better card. “Yeah,” he responds, not quite sure what else to say. He looks over at Kaidoh again, and sees little puffs of hot air emerge from his mouth.

“Can I stay over at your place?” Momoshiro asks. His cheeks are red; he knows he’s blushing, but he hopes Kaidoh can’t really tell, and will blame it on the cold. He doesn’t really know why he asked, but he wants to stay with Kaidoh for a little longer. Just a little bit.

Kaidoh raises his eyebrows, and it looks like he’s going to call Momoshiro a perverted gay idiot, but then he coughs and looks away. “Are you going to call me boring again?”

Momoshiro grins. “That depends on what we end up doing.”

 

**oOo**

“No,” Kaidoh says flat-out.

Momoshiro’s happy smile quickly drains away. “Well that was sort of mean.” He’s sitting on top of Kaidoh’s bed—his two persons bed—and he’s decided to not sleep in the futon, because wow, that mattress sure is soft!

“Get out of my bed, you sleep on the floor.”

Momoshiro glares at the boy. “That’s rude, you know? I’ll get back pains when I sleep on a futon. And your mattress is sooo soft,” he says this while he spreads all his limbs across the bed and buries his face into Kaidoh’s pillow. He inhales the scent of Kaidoh’s room when Kaidoh isn’t looking.

“No,” he says more firmly this time.

“There’s only one way to get me off of this bed,” says Momoshiro. Before he can tell Kaidoh what that is, Kaidoh has already grabbed his ankles and pulls him off of his bed. He lands on the futon, face first.

“Asshole!” he yells out immediately.

They start another fight again, like they always do, grabbing at each other’s shirts, punching, slapping—biting doesn’t seem to be all that new either. The longer they fight, the more tired they become, and the less power their punches have. There’s only one way to solve this dispute, and Momoshiro catches Kaidoh’s face with his hands, and kisses him. It’s strange, that this is how they stop fighting with each other; their fights are merely foreplay to lead them into kissing. Not that Momoshiro minds, and Kaidoh doesn’t seem to care either, because he’s moving his mouth against Momoshiro’s like he’s singing a soft lullaby that gives Momoshiro goose bumps.

In the back of his mind, he hopes Kaidoh locked his room; he remembers how his mom walked in on them that one time, and she’s either completely stupid, or a really nice person, because she didn’t say a thing. He doesn’t want to go through that embarrassing scene again.

“What’s wrong with sleeping in your bed,” Momoshiro mumbles against his lips.

Kaidoh’s hands run up his back. “I don’t want you in it.”

Momoshiro’s tongue slides across Kaidoh’s lips, he does the same to him. “Too bad, I’m sleeping in there anyway.”

“No you’re not.” Their tongues touch, and talking is temporarily disabled.

They part, a thin trail of saliva connects to each other’s lips. “Try and stop me then, dumbass.”

Momoshiro gets his wish, he’s in Kaidoh’s bed, though he’s sitting on the very edge of the fine mattress, and if he dares to creep a little closer to the snake, he’ll get kicked away. Bastard.

“Stop moving so much,” hisses Kaidoh.

Even though it’s dark, Momoshiro can tell his back is turned to him, and he wonders how he can even tell if he gets closer or not. “Well, you’re not giving me much space to work with here,” he bites back.

“You wanted to sleep in my bed, so that’s all you’re gonna get. Deal with it or get out.”

“You are such an ass.”

“And you are such an idiot. Shut up and go to sleep.”

Momoshiro moves his body again, trying to get comfortable. He gets kicked in his shin by Kaidoh. “Stop moving!”

“I’m trying to get comfortable!”

“Get comfortable faster!”

Momoshiro writhes underneath the covers on purpose, now only thinking of annoying Kaidoh because he was being an ass for only giving him a little bit of space on his huge and soft mattress. Kaidoh hisses in annoyance, and Momoshiro smirks; mission accomplished. Not even thinking about it, Momoshiro pushes himself forward, against Kaidoh’s back, and he can feel his warm skin against his chest (Kaidoh doesn’t wear a shirt when he goes to bed, apparently). Skillfully he throws an arm around Kaidoh and holds him in his place, so that he can’t squirm out of his hold and try to kick him instead.

“Let go of me,” Kaidoh growls as he tries to wiggle out of Momoshiro’s strong arm.

“Nah, I think I’ll sleep like this. Much more comfortable.” Alright, that sounded really gay, like he wants to sleep while holding Kaidoh—when he really just wants to annoy him instead.

“Ugh!” Kaidoh finally stops squirming against him, and he stays still.

It’s quiet, and Momoshiro’s arm rises up and down as Kaidoh breathes quietly, and this is making him a bit nervous because he expected the snake to start another fight with him. He did not expect him to be dormant and lay still, with Momoshiro pressed up against his back, his arm wrapped around his waist, as if they were cuddling or something.

That’s the problem: they _don’t_ cuddle. Ever. They’re not ... like that. Today has already been a little different, what with exchanging gifts, but cuddling ... They kiss, yes, and they fight a lot, but being quiet and comfortable like this is still new territory for Momoshiro. He feels a lot more comfortable being punched in the face and yelling insults, at least he knows what to do then. He doesn’t know what to do when Kaidoh keeps still, and lets him hold him like that, as if it were natural and not annoying at all. Is it natural to do this? Is it right to enjoy it? To feel warm, relaxed and kind of lightheaded because he’s holding Kaidoh against him?

He can’t really be gay ...

Momoshiro bumps his forehead against the back of Kaidoh’s head, and he can really smell his musky scent, which has this calming effect on him, almost like a sleeping drug. He closes his eyes; he can hold him. For now.

When he wakes up, he feels whoozy and very sleepy, and his eyes feel like lead. He scrunches up his nose because there’s something that’s making him itchy. He cracks an eye open, and looks down, down at Kaidoh’s hair which is stuffed in his face, and even lower, where Kaidoh’s face is resting on his shoulder, and his arm is wrapped around Momoshiro’s stomach. Not to mention the fact that Momoshiro’s arm is sitting underneath Kaidoh’s head, acting as a pillow for him.

He tries to get his arm back without waking him up, because damn, all the blood stopped circulating in it because of the pressure from Kaidoh’s head, and he starts to feel a thousand needles prick into his skin as his arm slowly wakes up. Each slight movement gets him stabbed by another thousand needles, so he gives up, and lets his stupid arm be used as a pillow. For now.

Good thing he didn’t have to wait long, because his actions have stirred Kaidoh awake, and now he raises his head from his shoulder.

“Ahhh,” says Momoshiro in relief when Kaidoh pushes himself away from him. He pulls his arm back and starts rubbing it to wake it up.

Kaidoh looks confused at Momoshiro, he’s probably not all the way awake yet, and probably wondering why he’s sleeping next to his rival.

“Sorry,” says Kaidoh all of the sudden. His voice is kind of cracked, but not annoyingly so.

“Huh? For what?” asks Momoshiro.

Kaidoh returns to his own pillow, and his eyes stare into Momoshiro’s, and it’s strangely alluring. “I slept on it, sorry.”

Oh, he means his arm. “It’s alright,” he says, because he doesn’t know what else to say. It’s not like it was bad waking up like that or something, it’s just that his arm fell asleep that made him uncomfortable.

He gets the feeling back into his arm, and sighs in relief. He puts it back down, in between him and Kaidoh, the back of his hand touching Kaidoh’s on accident, but neither pull away. Kaidoh’s eyes are still staring at him, and he wonders what’s so interesting about his face. Well, he is rather handsome ...

Momoshiro thinks of a great retort to tell Kaidoh off and make him feel embarrassed for staring at him, but the weird thing is, instead of opening his mouth to use his witty remark, he uses it to cover Kaidoh’s.

Alright, that didn’t go as planned. Damn. Kaidoh’s lips are dry and chapped. Double damn. So are his though, but he won’t admit that. Kaidoh however, seems to have realized this, and he quickly flicks his tongue over his lips to make them wet, and Momoshiro does the same, and they’re back to pressing their lips together. They move together, in perfect sync, because they’ve done this a hundred times already—but it still feels as good as ever. He still feels that flame rise up inside of him, crackling loudly, making him feel hot wherever Kaidoh touched him. Like Kaidoh is the sun, and he’s basking in his warmth.

Momoshiro shifts his weight, he half-way leans over Kaidoh, because subconsciously, he still likes to be on top. In a literal way, not in that gay kind of way. His train of thought runs dead when Kaidoh uses his tongue. They’re sliding together, swirling, pushing and Momoshiro is now completely on top of Kaidoh, his left knee in between Kaidoh’s legs, and his right leg on the outside. He’s leaning on his hands besides Kaidoh’s head, and lowers himself down to push his tongue deeper into his mouth.

“Haa,” says Kaidoh as he takes in a sharp breath.

A spark made out of fire and electricity shocks him to the bone, and he wants more of it, he wants more of Kaidoh, he wants Kaidoh to continue making weird sounds, because he’s addicted to it. One more time, he just wants to hear it one more time. The tip of their tongues clash together, but this time it’s Momoshiro who groans something incoherent. Any other time, he would have pulled back and stopped, because it’s embarrassing to let Kaidoh hear him like that (he enjoys it the other way though), but this time, he’s still sliding his tongue against Kaidoh, he has no plans of pulling back.

Momoshiro’s fingers start running through Kaidoh’s long hair, twirling some of it around his finger and pulling it slightly. Kaidoh’s back is arching up against him, his naked chest molding into his, and Momoshiro suddenly wants to take off his shirt, and really feel their skin together. So he does; he leaves Kaidoh’s hair alone, as well as his lips—Kaidoh makes a small sound out of protest and disappointment—and he quickly rids himself of his shirt, and throws it somewhere across the room.

Kaidoh doesn’t waste a second, his hands are already on Momoshiro’s naked chest, running along his muscles, towards his neck. Momoshiro bites his lip, and he fists some of Kaidoh’s hair in return, because he feels like he’s burning, burning because of Kaidoh’s hands, which are hot and soft and he can’t get enough of it. Kaidoh’s hands are now behind his neck, and he uses a tremendous amount of strength to pull him down towards his face, Momoshiro lets out a strangled yelp. It gets muffled when their mouths clash together though. And they’re back, kissing each other again, with Kaidoh’s hands exploring his back—and fuck that’s feeling really good right now.

They’re both panting, as if they’ve been running Kaidoh’s regular jogging route ten times already, and he feels as lightheaded as the first time as well. Momoshiro looks down at Kaidoh’s body below him, at his muscular chest, and he really wants to touch it. So his hand runs along the side of his ribs, up towards the delicate pink flesh situated on his chest. He wonders what would happen if he rubs his thumb across it, and without thinking much else, he does. Momoshiro uses his thumb to softly touch Kaidoh’s nipple.

Kaidoh hisses against Momoshiro’s mouth, and he bites his lips.

“Ow!” growls Momoshiro. He is about to call him an ass for biting him, but Kaidoh’s already back, gently sucking on the spot that he bit, as a sort of apology, and Momoshiro’s arms turn to mush—that’s a _very_ good apology.

So he does it again, flicking his thumb over the now erect nipple. As expected, Kaidoh hisses and he arches his back, squirming underneath Momoshiro. He grins against his lips; feeling so superior that he can draw those kind of reactions out of him. He wants to do it more. He reluctantly leaves Kaidoh’s lips, which are red and very raw, and he lowers his head down even more, towards the nook of Kaidoh’s neck, and touches it with his lips.

“Fshuuu!” hisses Kaidoh out loud, while scratching Momoshiro’s back (that’s gonna leave a mark), simply because Momoshiro is sucking a certain spot on his neck that he knows makes Kaidoh go crazy.

Hiss some more, he thinks, squirm some more, let go of all those weird little sounds that say he’s enjoying this as much as Momoshiro is. Dominating Kaidoh does feel rather good.

Except of course, Kaidoh can’t stand for that, despite letting out tiny little gasps from his mouth as Momoshiro leaves a trail of soft kisses on his neck. He shoves Momoshiro off of him, who yells out in surprise and crashes against the wall, and Kaidoh is now on him, pushing him harshly against the wall, not letting him escape. He forces his mouth on him, and they angrily suck, lick and there’s even some biting thrown in there. Momoshiro lets him, not because Kaidoh’s stronger than him and he can’t get free, but because it feels rather good. And because he can’t get free.

Now his hands are on Kaidoh’s back, feeling around, rubbing, and scratching him as payback from before. The snake seems to like that though, judging from the way his body shivers against him when his nails dig deep into his skin—so he does it again. Kaidoh shivers violently, and he pushes his mouth harder against Momoshiro’s. Heh, this is fun. Kaidoh shifts his weight to get a bit more comfortable, and his knee brushes up against Momoshiro’s extreme hard-on.

“Nggh!” he groans at the sudden contact. He pulls Kaidoh closer so that he can’t see his red face; because that felt really, really good, and he hates how he can’t control these pleasurable moans coming out of his mouth.

Kaidoh’s not stupid, he probably knows what his knee just touched, and Momoshiro wonders if he’ll stop now. They’ve never gone this far, sure there’s been plenty of times where he got really turned on just by making out with Kaidoh, but again, they’ve never gone this far. Perhaps it was his own fault, for getting scared and embarrassed at doing something about it, but when Kaidoh’s warm and half-naked body is pressed up against him, Momoshiro throws a big middle finger up towards his original thoughts. Screw that, this feels good.

And then it’s Kaidoh’s turn at sucking Momoshiro’s neck. He’s only done it a handful of times, because each time he’s done it, it felt so good, so sensitive, that Momoshiro’s body collapses in one long drawn-out moan, and he was so embarrassed by it that he shoved Kaidoh away. That was then, this is now.

“Kaoru!” he says. Not because he’s saying his name in ecstasy or something gay like that, but because if Kaidoh won’t stop now ... then he’s gonna ... he’s gonna ...

Kaidoh’s tongue slides up his neck, and it feels so weird and wet, and now Momoshiro is the one who’s squirming against him. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck— _fuck_. He can feel all these wonderful pleasurable feelings build up, they’re just waiting to explode, it just needs a trigger. His harsh breathing turn into gasps, fuck, he can’t control it.

“Kaoru ...” he tries to warn him. Except Kaidoh seems to think this is some form of encouragement, and instead of sucking on his neck, like he’s been doing, he uses his teeth to bite the very sensitive spot.

Momoshiro starts clawing at Kaidoh’s back and leans forwards. “Ah, ah!” he screams. He feels so violated, so sensitive, and his body is shaking all over and Momoshiro doesn’t know what to do when Kaidoh’s teeth are still imprinting him. So he does the same. He leans his head down and bites the side of Kaidoh’s neck in return, partly because he wants to stifle his embarrassing moans, and partly because he thinks this way Kaidoh will stop biting him.

But he doesn’t, not at all, in fact, Kaidoh bites down harder, and _sucks_ too—Momoshiro’s entire body trembles like an earthquake and he grabs Kaidoh’s shoulder to help keep him up straight as he feels his penis twitch and the first wave of his orgasm arrives along with the muscle spasms.

“Hnnggh,” he breathes through his nose, sinking his teeth deeper into Kaidoh’s sweaty neck. He rocks his body against Kaidoh, something he can’t seem to control, and the second wave of his orgasm finally pulls everything out in one of the greatest explosion he’s ever experienced before.

He can feel Kaidoh rock against him as well, his body also trembling, and his teeth are starting to really hurt—but for some reason, Momoshiro _likes_ it, and his eyes roll backwards as the seed inside of him pumps empty. His muscles slowly stop contracting, and ahhh, he’s feeling so good right about now.

Kaidoh finally stops biting his neck, and a breath of fresh air touches it, making it pinch slightly.

“Fshuuuu,” says Kaidoh in a very, very low and relaxed hiss.

Momoshiro finally lets go of Kaidoh’s neck as well, and he breathes heavily, catching his breath, now leaning his head against Kaidoh’s as a form of support. He feels hot and sweaty, relaxed and high, not to mention sticky, but it’s the greatest feeling in the world. Momoshiro simply slumps his body against Kaidoh’s, their bodies molding together , very sweaty and very sticky.

A few seconds tick by in silence, if by silence you mean deep breaths, and Momoshiro still doesn’t have it in him to move away. No, this feels comfy, albeit very sticky, and he doesn’t quite want to face Kaidoh yet—he’s sure he looks completely out of it, and he doesn’t want to think about how completely mortifying it is that he just _came_ simply by Kaidoh biting his neck. That’s just embarrassing. Kaidoh doesn’t seem to be making any efforts to move away either, his head leaning on Momoshiro’s shoulder, and his breath tickling his back.

Actually, now that Momoshiro is becoming more aware, he realizes it’s not just his own sticky shorts that he feels down there. It’s Kaidoh’s as well. Then he wants to slap himself silly; he was so completely absorbed in his own orgasm, that he didn’t realize Kaidoh was having his at the same time as well! Oh, so _that’s_ why he was trembling so much and hissing. That makes sense. Now Momoshiro feels even more embarrassed; they had just successfully made each other come, through nothing but biting each other’s necks. Was that really all it took? Were they really that horny? Does this make him gay?

Kaidoh suddenly moves his head a bit, his hair making Momoshiro feel a bit itchy, and he plants a very soft kiss on the spot that he’d been biting just moments ago. It feels nice though, because the more time goes on, the more Momoshiro’s neck starts to hurt like a bitch; Kaidoh really bit him hard. So tiny kisses like this are okay with him. Momoshiro finally looks down at Kaidoh’s neck as well, to see the damage he’s done to him. There’s a half oval full of red teeth marks printed into his neck. Ouch, that looks painful. He feels sort of bad now. He kisses it as well, not because he wants to make him feel better, but because Kaidoh did it first. And because he wants to make him feel better.

He doesn’t know how long they stayed like that, their bodies sweaty and sticky, slumped against each other in a big mess. But he does know Kaidoh is the first one to move, and it’s Momoshiro’s fault, because his stomach suddenly rumbles, that work-out made him really hungry.

Kaidoh lifts his head away from Momoshiro’s shoulder. “Do you only ever think about food?” he asks with a snort.

Momoshiro wants to say that no, that’s not all that he thinks about, because minutes ago, he was thinking just how fucking fantastic it felt to be bitten on his neck. But he’s never ever going to utter those words, so Momoshiro stays silent.

Kaidoh then finally separates himself from Momoshiro, and he doesn’t know if he’s prepared for this or not, he’s embarrassed that he did something like that with Kaidoh, not to mention embarrassed at just how little it took to send him over the edge. Kaidoh slides off of his bed, and he stands up, and Momoshiro finally musters up the courage to look at him. His breath hitches in his throat when his eyes land upon Kaidoh.

His cheeks—no—his entire face, including his ears, and even his neck, and some other parts of his body as well, are completely red. Shiny and sweaty red. The boy in front of him looks nothing like the usual Kaidoh, the one whose face is always pulled in an angry scowl, no ... the one in front of him looks so vulnerable, so delicate, he’s wobbling on his feet, and his usual crazy looking eyes are half-closed and they’re staring at him. Staring at him so intensely, that Momoshiro’s heart is set on fire again.

No, that’s definitely not the usual Kaidoh. That’s a side of Kaidoh he’s never seen before, and he’s probably the only person to have ever seen him like that—and that’s a good thing, because he’s overcome by feelings of possessiveness, to never let anyone see him like that. Kaidoh’s _his_ damnit.

Shit, that really does make him gay.

“Got any tissues?” asks Momoshiro awkwardly, breaking up the silence.

Kaidoh nods his head, and he walks towards his desk, opens up a drawer, and pulls out a bunch of tissues. He grabs some for himself, and flings the rest towards Momoshiro. They clean themselves up in an uncomfortable silence. What the hell do you say after doing something like this? Hey, that was nice, let’s do it again? Or, I’m sorry for biting you so hard that I left painful marks? Momoshiro doesn’t know, it’s confusing. He doesn’t know how to act gay.

Kaidoh then walks towards his wardrobe and takes out some boxers. Two of them. He splits them apart, and then hands one over to Momoshiro, who just looks at it with a stupid look on his face.

“Take it,” he hisses.

“Why?”

“Fine, don’t take it. You can sit in your own filth the entire day for all I care.”

Momoshiro quickly pulls it from his hands before he can take it back. Which now makes him face a new dilemma: he’ll have to undress naked in front of Kaidoh—and he’s not yet gay enough to do that!

Luckily, Kaidoh disappears from his room with a tow of other clothes in his hands, probably going towards his bathroom to dress up. Momoshiro sighs in relief, then he takes off his own sticky boxers and puts on Kaidoh’s black ones. He feels weird for wearing his boxers, but he’s not gonna go naked. He scans the room for his shirt, which he threw off of him while sucking the daylights out of Kaidoh, and the memory makes him blush and feel awkward again. He spots it hanging off of the corner from Kaidoh’s wardrobe, and quickly pulls it down.

Five minutes later and Kaidoh returns, fully dressed, and Momoshiro is also fully dressed, already packing up his things. He doesn’t really know what to say to Kaidoh now. He hasn’t been gay long enough to know what to do now. He knows how to insult Kaidoh, start fights with Kaidoh, he even knows how to kiss him, but he doesn’t know how to face him after getting each other off. Momoshiro finally then mumbles something about going home, and he does.

He never does return Kaidoh’s boxers though. Because it’s embarrassing (how the hell do you hand over boxers without implying what they had done?), not because he wants to keep it.

 

**oOo**

The following Monday, Momoshiro tries hard not to stare at Kaidoh who’s practicing on the courts.

“Kaidoh, what’s that on your neck? Is it a bruise or something?” asks Eiji when Kaidoh walks by.

Kaidoh flushes red, and he immediately covers his neck with his hand. Somewhere in the background, Momoshiro coughs and pretends to not notice.

“It’s nothing,” he replies.

Momoshiro fights hard against the memories that are flooding back into his mind. He doesn’t want to remember Kaidoh’s little gasps of pleasure, or the way his hands felt on his body, or how vulnerable he looked like, or how they both came into their boxer shorts at the same time. Ah fuck, he’s hard now. Inconspicuously, he puts his racket in front of himself, and hopes no one notices it.

“Looks pretty bad,” muses Eiji, but then he thinks nothing of it.

Momoshiro gives Eiji a big, broad, fake-as-hell smile, and hopes his racket is covering his erection enough.

“Momo!” Eiji gasps. “You got a bruise on your neck too!”

Oh crap.

Momoshiro tries to hide the bruise, and simultaneously, tries to hide his hard-on (luckily it’s going limp from being under pressure), but it’s not working all that well, and Eiji is already walking over, coming to inspect the bruise closer.

“They’re teeth marks!” he exclaims.

Oh double crap.

Momoshiro tries to find an excuse, like a dog bit him, or a vampire snuck into his room late at night—anything to not admit it was Kaidoh. “Uhm, ehh,” he stumbles. He looks over at Kaidoh, as a signal for ‘help me out here’, but of course, it’s not like they’re psychic or something, and Kaidoh merely grunts at him, his face red.

Eiji however, notices Momoshiro’s worried glance. “Hey you guys ... you can’t be ...” He then looks at Kaidoh, whose red head is really not helping him out here, and then back at Momoshiro, who is probably also blushing madly.

The impending doom of his life being officially over starts to hang over Momoshiro’s head. Well, at least there’s one thing that went right: his erection is completely flaccid by now.

“Are you guys, like, dating each other?”

“What!” yells Momoshiro. Oh god, here it comes, the words that are threatening to spill from his mouth. The words that he doesn’t really want to say. “That’s ridiculous, Eiji-senpai! I’m not gay, and certainly not gay for Kaidoh!”

Kaidoh looks up, half from being shocked at hearing him yell all those things, and half because Momoshiro has reverted back to calling him by his last name.

“That’s disgusting! I could never date that ugly snake—even if I _were_ gay!” Oh fuck, the words just won’t stop coming out like vomit.

“Gee, Momo, I was just joking you know,” says Eiji with a nervous chuckle. “You don’t need to take it so seriously.”

“Dude, that’s not funny. Not at all. Like we could ever be ...” Momoshiro sees the look on Kaidoh’s face, a stark contrast of that tender side he saw just two days ago, now it’s nothing but a broken and shattered look. A bar of iron—or twenty—drop inside of his stomach, and he feels completely sick and disgusted with himself.

So he runs away.

 

**oOo**

What do you do when you really fucked something up? What do you do when you said some things that you didn’t really mean, but said them anyway? What do you do when you feel so sick you’ve been throwing up every day just thinking about it? What do you do when your heart aches, and it just won’t stop hurting throughout the day?

What do you do when you really hurt someone?

Momoshiro doesn’t know the answer to any of these questions. He lies in bed, curled up and hugging his upset stomach, staring at his wall like he’s dead. Perhaps he can force Kaidoh to chug down a bottle full of bleach so he won’t remember what Momoshiro said anymore. Or maybe things will get better if he lets him punch and break his nose again, though that seems sort of farfetched.

He knows he really fucked up good—made painfully clear by the fact that every time he sees Kaidoh at school, he has this _look_ on his face, then turns away and doesn’t even acknowledge Momoshiro. He doesn’t know how to fix it, this thing with Kaidoh. He didn’t mean any of it, he likes kissing with Kaidoh, and yeah, he might be a little gay, but worst of all ... he’s just really disappointed in himself for crushing him like that.

Argh, he’s gotta do something about it! He’ll go crazy if he doesn’t! So Momoshiro whips out his cellphone and dials Kaidoh’s number. He already feels nervous and anxious, waiting for him to pick up. He doesn’t though, even after calling him five more times. Momoshiro decides to personally go over to his house.

Except Kaidoh isn’t home either, his mother telling him that he went out for a walk. Knowing Kaidoh, that meant jogging for a very long time. Momoshiro tries to remember Kaidoh’s jogging route, and tries to meet him half-way. He hasn’t even run for ten minutes when he’s already dead-tired and exhausted. He briefly stops to catch his breath. Through some sort of divine coincidence, he literally bumps against Kaidoh, and they fall down together in a mess on the sidewalk.

“What the—” Kaidoh sees who he’s crashed into, and immediately gets up.

“No wait, Kaoru!” Momoshiro grabs his jacket so he can’t run away.

Kaidoh hisses. “Let go of me.” He starts to run away, despite Momoshiro’s grip on his jacket, and through sheer power Momoshiro gets dragged along.

“No, stop! I’ve got something to say!” He pulls harder at Kaidoh’s jacket, but wow, he’s a fucking beast, he’s still pulling Momoshiro along. He’s pretty sure the jacket has been stretched to oblivion by now.

“Let go, you fucking moron!” He finally stops and turns to Momoshiro. Momoshiro sees how Kaidoh makes a fist with his hand, and he pulls it back.

“Okay, you can hit me,” Momoshiro says while preparing himself for the impact. It never comes though, and Kaidoh is walking away again. “Come back damnit! I need to tell you something!”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Kaidoh’s running now, and Momoshiro chases after him.

Momoshiro throws himself at Kaidoh, latching onto his legs, and down they go again. He’s not letting go of Kaidoh’s legs though, hugging them close to his body. “Just listen to me!” he says.

“Fine, I’m fucking listening,” says Kaidoh with huge disdain. He twists his body around so he’s at least sitting up straight, despite Momoshiro still holding onto his legs.

Well shit, now Momoshiro doesn’t know what to say anymore. He’s pretty damn sure Kaidoh won’t forgive him for a simple ‘sorry’, and not even letting him break his nose would be a good enough apology. So what can he say?

“I’m, uhh, sorry.” He wants to hit himself in the face.

“Fshuuu, get off!” Kaidoh struggles free and he gets up again.

“No, wait—I really am. Damnit, this is hard to say. I’m sorry for saying all those things, okay? I didn’t mean, didn’t mean them at all. I was embarrassed, and I didn’t want anyone finding out about us ... and I know that doesn’t excuse me for saying all those things, but I am really sorry, and I wish I could take it back. I really do. I’m sorry Kaoru.”

Kaidoh stands still. At least he’s not running away. “Idiot, crying is for girls.”

Momoshiro wants to protest and say he isn’t crying, when he realizes that there _are_ tears coming out of his eyes. Fuck, when did that happen? “I’m not. The sun was in my eye,” he says lamely and brushes them away. It’s a cloudy winter day.

“I hate you, you know,” says Kaidoh.

“Yeah, I know.”

“I really want to break your nose again.”

“Go ahead, I don’t care.”

“No, I won’t. I’m not as cruel as you.”

“Okay, I deserved that one ... I am really sorry, you know? I want us to ... go back to normal again.”

Kaidoh huffs. “What’s normal?”

“Fighting, yelling, insulting,” Momoshiro starts to list. Then he looks into Kaidoh’s eyes. “Touching, holding, kissing ...” Momoshiro looks away uncomfortably. “And ... more ... things.” Thank god no one’s around to witness this pitiful apology. He swallows loudly, and musters up all his courage to finish it with what he has wanted to say all along. “I think I might be gay for you.”

Kaidoh laughs, a magical sound that heals all of Momoshiro’s wounds and worries. He wonders if he’s hallucinating, but Kaidoh is really laughing at him, and damnit, why are his eyes watering again? He’s not that fucking girly! And why is that snake laughing at this heartfelt confession!

“Stop laughing, dumbass!” he says indignantly. “That took a lot to say out loud!”

“You are such an idiot! I already knew that!” says Kaidoh, roaring with laughter.

Momoshiro grows hot and red in his face, and he childishly stomps his feet on the ground. “Be my boyfriend!”

Kaidoh stops laughing. Momoshiro looks as if he just smelled someone’s fart, his eyebrows knitted together in a huge confusing frown, because he’s wondering what the hell he just said.

Kaidoh bends down his head, so that he hides most of his face. “... Only if you stop calling me Mamushi.”

Wait, wait, wait, wait— _what did he just say!?_

“Okay, deal.”

Seriously, he didn’t ... did he? No ... no way. He did. He really did.

 

**oOo**

Momoshiro spots the tall dark figure walking his way. “Hey guys, guys!” he calls for attention. His three classmates stop talking and look at him.

“Let me introduce you to Kaoru-chan!” he says cheerfully.

“Eh, really? We’re really gonna meet your girlfriend?” asks Yamada.

“Yup!” And then, right as Kaidoh passes by, Momoshiro flings his arm around his shoulder and yanks him towards himself, and he crashes uncomfortably against Momoshiro’s chest.

“Meet Kaoru-chan!” he says, still smiling.

His three classmates stare at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

Kaidoh hisses at them, and they all immediately take a step backwards. “Don’t introduce me by that stupid name, moron,” he says in a rough voice. He struggles free from Momoshiro’s hold on him. “Don’t be late for practice.” Then he starts walking away.

Momoshiro is still grinning broadly; quite proud of not only introducing Kaidoh to his classmates which gave them the shock of their life, but also simultaneously teasing the snake. What’s that proverb again? Two flies with one pebble? Yeah, that one.

“Momo-san,” starts Yamada uncomfortably. “... That was Kaoru-chan?”

“Sure is. Ah, I’ll talk to you guys later, I need to ask him something,” he says, then he runs after Kaidoh.

Yamada looks at Souichi. “That was ...”

“A guy,” finishes Souichi.

“Well, he sort of looked like a girl,” pipes in Tanaka. They all nod their heads.

Momoshiro taps Kaidoh’s shoulder, then completely covers him with his arm, hanging off of him. “Yo, Kaoru-chan,” he says cheerfully.

“What do you want, Takeshi.”

“Well, I have this question. It’s deadly serious.”

“What.”

“Is the reason why you change the flavour of your chapstick every day, because you think I’ll get bored of kissing you if it’s the same old taste each time?”

Kaidoh shoves him so hard, Momoshiro cheek skids across the floor for several centimeters. Ouch. He can’t stop grinning though. He picks himself up, rubs his cheek, then runs after Kaidoh again.

Yeah, he’s gay for Kaidoh. He can live with that.


	4. Acceptance

Kaidoh notices something. That something being Momoshiro’s black boxers. “Those are mine,” he says.

Momoshiro stops brushing his teeth for a second and leans back to look at Kaidoh. “Huh?” he splutters, toothpaste still in his mouth.

“Those are my boxers,” he repeats.

Momoshiro’s eyes travel down towards his half naked body, and his eyes stare at his boxers. Then he does a little dance, swaying his hips back and forth, and laughs at Kaidoh’s disgusted expression.

He spits out some of the toothpaste to talk. “They look much better on me, don’t they?”

“I was looking for them,” says Kaidoh. He really wants to strip Momoshiro right now. To get his boxers back, that is. “I thought I’d lost them.”

“Well, they’re mine now,” says Momoshiro with a shrug, then returns to brushing his teeth.

Kaidoh says nothing for now, but he knows he’ll get it back later, when he’ll remove it himself. He continues brushing his teeth in front of the mirror as well. His shoulder bumps against Momoshiro’s; that idiot is taking up almost the entire sink, so he slightly pushes himself against his shoulder, to make free up some space for himself. Momoshiro of course, sees this as a challenge, and he pushes back, pretending to not notice and still brushing his teeth.

“Stop hogging the entire sink!” yells Kaidoh and he pushes against Momoshiro more forcefully.

“You schtop howwing it!” says Momoshiro through his toothpaste. Some of it lands on Kaidoh’s face, and that in turn pisses him off even more.

In the end, they’re on the bathroom floor, Momoshiro’s on the bottom, with Kaidoh on top. Half of the bathroom mats are tangled in between them, and there’s toothpaste all over their half naked bodies, and some on the floor as well. They growl and struggle for dominance, and Kaidoh’s half trying to get his boxers back.

Hazue, Kaidoh’s little brother, decides to open the bathroom door during that time.  Kaidoh freezes in mid-action, his hands on Momoshiro’s boxers, in the process of tugging them off, and Momoshiro whose hands are wrapped around Kaidoh’s neck, was in the process of biting Kaidoh’s ear. They both stare at Hazue in silence, their eyes huge and wide, and Kaidoh’s toothbrush falls from his mouth and lands on Momoshiro’s stomach with a silent ‘plop’. Hazue closes the bathroom door and silently scuffles away.

Kaidoh pulls himself away from Momoshiro.

“You think he noticed?” asks Momoshiro.

Kaidoh stares at Momoshiro in disbelief; is he serious? Of course he noticed! What else would he think about two guys lying on the floor, half naked, and one trying to take of the other one’s boxers? Fuck. They weren’t even doing anything dirty this time, and Hazue just had to walk in on them in the strangest position. Ah crap.

“You forgot to lock it,” mumbles Momoshiro. He flings Kaidoh’s toothbrush away from his stomach, then gets up to clean the rest of his body.

“You were the last one to walk in, dumbass,” retorts Kaidoh. He gets up as well, and they’re now cleaning together, standing side by side at the sink. Momoshiro is still hogging most of the space though.

“Oh right, I did,” Momoshiro laughs.

“That’s not funny.”

Momoshiro stops rubbing his arms clean and leans his head against Kaidoh with a sigh. “We should really ...”

“I know,” Kaidoh says, not letting him finish. He looks down at his hands on the sink. “I know.”

“Not to put pressure on you or anything, but if we keep this up, sooner or later they’ll figure it out anyway.” Momoshiro bites his lips as he realizes something. “If they haven’t already, that is.”

Kaidoh snorts, half embarrassed, half nervous, and a little amused. “You’re just lucky your family is so easygoing,” he can’t help himself but say. He knows it’s not Momoshiro’s fault, it’s not his fault his family accepted them so easily, but he can’t help but be insanely jealous at it either.

Momoshiro messes up Kaidoh’s hair, which is rather affectionate, and something Kaidoh secretly likes, but hisses at it anyway. “Come on, don’t be such a dick. I’m here too, you know. You’re not alone.”

Kaidoh looks up at Momoshiro, and for once in his life, he thinks Momoshiro looks rather mature, sort of intelligent, not the moron who would easily mess things up. Like ... someone you can depend on. Well, the image is a little bit ruined when he’s half naked, his boxers are threatening to fall off his ass, and he’s covered in toothpaste. But hey, that’s Momoshiro. Kaidoh leans his head against Momoshiro’s toothpaste covered shoulder and takes in a deep breath.

“Yeah, I know.”

He lets him keep his black boxers for a little while longer. Just for a little while.

 

**oOo**

“Ahh, we’re going to be third years soon,” says Momoshiro. They’re eating lunch on the rooftop again. “Eiji-senpai is graduating and going off to college. I feel a little sentimental. He’s holding a party too, everyone’s gonna be there.”

“It’s not like he’s moving out of the country,” says Kaidoh. He picks at his food with his chopsticks, not really hungry anymore. He offers some to Momoshiro, who gladly takes it.

“Yeah but, he might as well be,” he says and chews on some rice. “I mean, we don’t exactly keep in touch.”

Kaidoh raises his eyebrows. “Not with anyone? Not even Echizen?”

“No. The brat is in America. What about you?”

“I still discuss training techniques with Inui-senpai sometimes.”

Momoshiro swallows the rice and quickly burps afterwards. Kaidoh gives him a disgusted look. “Really, when’s the last time you talked to him then?”

“Last week. We were jogging together.”

Momoshiro pinches Kaidoh’s cheek with his chopsticks. Kaidoh slaps him away. “Do you go easy on him too?”

“No, we run the entire way. I only go easy on you.”

Momoshiro huffs out loud. “Fuck you, you’re both training freaks. No normal person would be able to do that every day.”

“Only a lazy person like you wouldn’t be able to finish it,” scoffs Kaidoh.

“Who are you calling lazy!”

“You of course, dumbass.”

“I’m not lazy. I just like to slack off.”

Kaidoh laughs, and Momoshiro joins him. He looks at Momoshiro’s puffed up smiling cheeks, and he wonders, when he had grown to like his laugh this much. When had he grown to like spending time with him like this, to simply talk and eat lunch together. It seems like such a precious moment in time, up on the rooftop with Momoshiro, with no one else but them.

“Kaoru-chan,” says Momoshiro.

“What?”

“Make me some fried noodles next time.”

“You should be happy I make you any lunch at all.”

“Hey, you were the one that wanted to do it!”

“That doesn’t mean I’ll do everything.” He rolls his eyes.

“Oh right, I got you something,” says Momoshiro and he quickly pulls something out of his pants.

Kaidoh scooches closer and looks at what it is. It’s a badly wrinkled photograph of Momoshiro, standing in his Seigaku tennis gear on the courts. He looks younger, but just as dumb.

“I don’t want a picture of you,” he says immediately. Alright, perhaps he does. Maybe one that makes him look a little bit more intelligent.

Momoshiro hands him the picture. “No look, in the background.”

Kaidoh brings the picture closer to his face, because there’s not much in the background besides the school building. Is he supposed to see something?

“What? Are you messing with me?”

“Ugh, no, can’t you even recognize your own stupid bandana when you see it?” Momoshiro points at a spot, at the building, above Momoshiro’s shoulder, and there’s a speck of green located in the distance. It’s so tiny, Kaidoh has to look at it twice before he can see, that that’s indeed him. Very, _very_ far away from Momoshiro.

“It’s a picture of us!”

“Are you _serious?_ ” he asks, mouth agape.

“Well yeah, I know it’s not the best but ...”

“How the hell is this a picture of us? I’m way in the background, you idiot.”

Momoshiro sighs heavily, he grabs the picture back and starts to rip a tear in it, but Kaidoh quickly yanks it out of his hands. “Don’t tear it up!” he hisses.

“Oh so you _do_ want a picture of me,” teases Momoshiro.

Kaidoh holds it possessively against his chest. “Fuck you.”

“Well, it was the only picture I could find of us. We literally have no pictures together.”

“Not one?”

“Not a single one! I looked everywhere too. We’re not even in group pictures. It’s either me with the rest, or you with the rest, but never together. It’s like we hated each other or something.”

“We did,” points Kaidoh out.

Momoshiro gives him a fake look of hurt. “Well, don’t say it so bluntly.”

“Why were you looking for pictures of us?”

Momoshiro scratches the back of his head, the way he usually does when he’s feeling embarrassed. “Well ... ehehehe. My mom gave me this really nice picture frame the other day ... and ... yeah.”

“Oh,” he says. He’s never really thought of it, a picture with Momoshiro. But now that it’s on his mind, he sort of wants one too. Not framed or anything, but it would be nice to have one.

“Yup, I’ve decided. Let’s go to a photo booth sometime,” says Momoshiro determined.

“Idiot,” sighs Kaidoh. But he wants one too.

He keeps the picture that Momoshiro gave him and places it underneath his pillow at home. He sleeps better this way.

Next time he sees Momoshiro, he gives him his fried noodles lunch.

 

**oOo**

“You’re way too fat!”

“Shut up, I’m a growing young man!”

“Oof!” Kaidoh wheezes. “Get off me!”

Momoshiro looks at him, his face pulled up in an irritated scowl. “Well, how else am I supposed to get in the frame?”

“Not by sitting in my lap!”

“Then move over.” Whether Kaidoh wants to move over or not, he’s shoved against the tiny little wall either way, Momoshiro now sitting on the little stool as well, and taking up the majority of its space, the bastard.

“Now I’m not even in the frame, are you stupid?” Kaidoh hisses.

Momoshiro pulls Kaidoh’s head towards his chest with his arm around it, then he looks straight towards the camera in front of him. “Problem solved,” he says.

It’s really uncomfortable though, so Kaidoh elbows Momoshiro in his side, then sits back up straight. How in the world are they going to do this? They can’t even sit still long enough to take a picture, let alone sit in front of the frame together. Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh’s shirt and he growls at him. Kaidoh grabs his shirt as well, it’s a reflex.

“Don’t fight with me, Kaoru!”

“Then don’t put me in uncomfortable positions!”

_Flash._

“Ah fuck, look, it already took the first picture!” complains Momoshiro.

“If you didn’t open your big mouth to complain—we’d be in frame by now!”

“Why you!”

They start pulling each other’s shirt, stretching the fabric between their hands, and bumping their heads against each other. At the same time, they’re also trying to shove each other off of the little stool, and there’s a mess of moving and flailing limbs going on in the photo booth, sometimes it sticks out of the curtain next to them.

_Flash._

“Stop it, you’re ruining our pictures!” yells Kaidoh.

Momoshiro decides this is a great time to shut Kaidoh up with his mouth. He clashes against it in a rather painful way, but Kaidoh’s not in the mood for some kissing, so he tries to shove Momoshiro away—except the bastard is too fat and he’s now pushing him against the wall and trying to stick his tongue down his throat. He finally pries Kaidoh’s tight lips open and worms his tongue inside.

He lets him.

Damnit.

_Flash._

Damnit!

What ensues is a half tussle battle, and the rest is filled in with sloppy kisses and grabbing hands. Kaidoh can’t make up his mind; one second he wants to take the damn picture and tries to get Momoshiro off of him, and the next second he’s filled with adrenaline and hormones and angrily sucks at Momoshiro’s lips. His hormones and Momoshiro’s tongue eventually win him over and thoughts of taking a normal picture with him is thrown out of his mind. Especially when Momoshiro starts sucking on the side of his neck, which makes Kaidoh’s face scrunch up together while his mouth is wide open, trying to suck in air.

_Flash._

He barely even acknowledges the flash as Momoshiro plants a kiss right above his collarbone. Then one higher, and another, and Kaidoh’s feeling all fuzzy again and he moves his body against Momoshiro. He slides his tongue all the way up his neck, to his ears, which feels both disgusting and pleasurable. Kaidoh’s hands are everywhere on Momoshiro’s body, feeling him there and there, and scratching a trail of red marks on his arm when Momoshiro nibbles on his earlobe.

“Takeshi ...” says Kaidoh in a low voice. He sighs in pleasure and squirms a bit—but they have to stop. This is getting a bit too ... Momoshiro’s hand ends up in Kaidoh’s lap, right on his ...

“Not here!” he hisses out loud, and gives one final push against Momoshiro and he falls off of the stool—and rolls out of the booth.

Momoshiro lies on the floor with a puzzled expression; he’s too shocked to even complain. Kaidoh makes his way out of the booth and wipes his wet lips dry. He looks down at the idiot, then helps him get up.

“You know,” says Momoshiro, “next time—”

The photo booth whirs and cracks, and out pops a strip of photos. Kaidoh doesn’t get to hear what ‘next time’ will happen, and he quickly scoops up the pictures from the booth. Momoshiro leans over his shoulder to look at them too.

The first picture has them grabbing each other by the shirts. The second one they’re bumping heads against each other, each yelling and having an ugly expression on their faces. The third has Kaidoh pressed up against the wall as Momoshiro kisses him. The fourth ... Kaidoh blushes and he quickly moves his thumbs to cover up his face so Momoshiro can’t look at it.

“Heh,” grins Momoshiro. “That about sums us up.”

Kaidoh punches his arm.

They end up splitting the pictures afterwards. Each one getting a fighting one, and a kissing one. Momoshiro insists on getting the last picture, which Kaidoh had to be convinced of.

He’s eventually bribed when Momoshiro gets him to make the same expression as the last photo.

 

**oOo**

Everyone’s there, except for Echizen, who’s still in America. But excluding him, everyone of the old Seigaku tennis club is in the room, exchanging greetings and small talk with each other. Kaidoh stands awkwardly in the middle of the room as Momoshiro goes off on his own and happily chats with everyone.

“Hello, Kaidoh,” says a chilly voice.

Kaidoh turns around. “Hello, Inui-senpai. Did you graduate as well?” That was a silly question; of course he did. Everyone in this room except for Momoshiro and him had graduated high school.

“I had a 100 percent chance of passing,” he says with a push of his glasses.

Of course he did. Kaidoh looks over at the living room, which is connected to the kitchen, where everyone is huddled. There’s Eiji who is fixing snacks for everyone, Oishi who is right behind him, Tezuka who is on the couch talking with Fuji, and Kawamura is talking with Momoshiro. Everyone has grown up, becoming taller, broader, and their voices much deeper. Only he and Momoshiro look the same. Or perhaps that’s because he was never separated from Momoshiro that he didn’t notice the both of them growing up.

“Snacks are here!” yells Eiji excitedly. He walks out of the kitchen carrying a tray full of bowls that are filled with chips, crackers and other things that are bad for you. Momoshiro is the first one to grab a handful of chips out of one of the bowls.

Before Eiji can complain, Kaidoh steps in and slaps Momoshiro’s hand. “Idiot, don’t be too greedy. Respect your host.”

Momoshiro gives him a grumpy look, but lets his hand go and the chips fall back into the bowl, and he grabs three pieces in return. He munches on them loudly, giving Kaidoh a dirty look.

Eiji hands everyone drinks, then raises his glass in the air. “I’d like to make a toast!”

Everyone stops talking and they gather together. “To the Seigaku members: congratulations on your graduation!” Everyone clinks their glasses together, Momoshiro and Kaidoh do it as well, even though they’re not graduating.

Despite being around everyone again, they feel further away than ever. Everyone’s going their separate paths, almost no one will pursue tennis. What will happen to him when he graduates? What of Momoshiro? Momoshiro notices Kaidoh’s gloomy look, and he throws an arm across his shoulder. “Come on Kaoru-chan, don’t sulk!”

“I’m not sulking,” he says with a pout.

Kawamura looks at them perplexed. “You guys ... aren’t fighting?”

Momoshiro and Kaidoh look at him, Momoshiro’s arm still slung over his shoulder. “Huh, why?” asks Momoshiro.

“You just called Kaidoh ‘Kaoru-chan’ and didn’t get hit?”

Eiji happily joins the conversation. “Ne, they’ve been calling each other by their first names since they entered high school!”

Kaidoh hisses and hides his blushing face, while pushing himself away from Momoshiro. He quickly walks away before anything else embarrassing can happen. Stupid Momoshiro with his stupid nickname. He at least wants to look dignified in front of his senpais. He wanders around Eiji’s house and happens to stumble upon the bathroom, so he enters. He splashes some water in his face at the sink, and when he looks up at the mirror, he sees Momoshiro in the reflection, standing behind him.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. His voice is serious, that tone he only uses around Kaidoh when he’s being gentle and caring.

“Nothing,” responds Kaidoh and he dries his face with a towel.

“You know, they’re talking about us in there.”

His stomach clenches tight. “Let them talk.” What will happen if he returns? Will they find out? Will they laugh at them? Shun them?

Momoshiro puts his arm around Kaidoh’s stomach and presses his body against his back. Kaidoh naturally leans in. “What are you so worried about, hmm?”

“I don’t know.”

Momoshiro puts his chin on Kaidoh’s shoulder and sighs, it’s making Kaidoh feel a little bit better. Less queasy, less anxious. More comfy.  He places his hand on top of Momoshiro’s and squeezes it.

“Everyone’s graduated already,” says Momoshiro.

His breath tickles Kaidoh’s skin, and it feels like a warm blanket, covering him up. “I know. They’re all leaving us behind.” He doesn’t want to be left behind by Momoshiro.

“Hey now, who was the one that said they’re not moving out of Japan?”

Kaidoh snorts. “Not like that.” He snuggles closer to Momoshiro’s warm and big body. “Not like that,” he murmurs.

“They’re not going to laugh,” he says. “Well okay, maybe Eiji-senpai will faint. Since he still hasn’t realized after two years.”

Kaidoh grins. “He’s almost as dense as you. Almost.”

“Hey now!”

Kaidoh chuckles and Momoshiro tightens his grip on him. He doesn’t feel anxious or queasy anymore. If Momoshiro is with him, it’ll be fine ... it’ll all be fine.

There’s a very loud bang that suddenly echoes through the bathroom. Kaidoh freezes, Momoshiro stops snuggling, and they look at each other in the mirror with wide eyes. The stench of rotten eggs fills up his nose, and Kaidoh immediately covers it up before he can smell it some more and throw up.

“Oh my _god!_ ” he says. He starts hitting Momoshiro to try and get away from him.

“What!” whines Momoshiro indignantly. “Those chips made me gassy!”

“That’s fucking disgusting, you _pig!_ ” He punches Momoshiro’s stomach and he finally lets go of his grip, then he quickly opens up the bathroom door—and almost trips over Eiji.

“Eiji-senpai,” he says, surprised.

Oishi is right behind him, crouched on the floor. Eiji starts to smile nervously. “Ehehe, it was Oishi’s idea!”

“What, no it wasn’t!”

Fuji is right behind them, and snaps a picture with his shiny digital SLR. Inui is standing next to him, and is seen scribbling furiously in his notebook. Kawamura shuffles awkwardly, and Tezuka looks as emotionless as ever.

Kaidoh grows hot in the face; does _everyone_ know now?

“Yo!” calls out Momoshiro as he also exits the bathroom. He waves his hand in front of his face. “Phew, don’t go in there—Kaoru-chan can be rather smelly.”

Kaidoh swings his fist at Momoshiro, who luckily dodges it.

“Kaidoh, Momo ... it can’t be right?” asks Eiji in disbelief. “Tell me you guys weren’t ... all this time.”

Inui pushes up his glasses. “There’s a 87 percent chance of Kaidoh and Momoshiro being in some sort of relationship.”

Kaidoh wants to crawl in a pit full of spikes and get slowly impaled—anything is better than enduring _this._ He wants to die, and preferably, take Momoshiro with him, so he starts to strangle him in front of everyone.

“Seriously? Seriously! Right under my nose! Oh, I feel deceived!” whines Eiji.

“Now, now, Eiji, they might have had their ...” Oishi swallows. “Reasons.”

“Shouldn’t we break them up?” asks Kawamura concerned. “Momo’s face is turning blue.”

“There’s a 15 percent chance of Momoshiro passing out because of lack of oxygen. There’s a 66 percent chance of him punching Kaidoh before he does.”

“Right under my noooose!”

“Kaidoh, give him some air!”

“There’s a 20 percent chance of Momoshiro passing out now.”

Fuji takes another picture.

Momoshiro punches Kaidoh in his stomach, and he’s finally relieved of his strong hold on his neck. He gasps for air as he clutches his sore throat. Kaidoh leans against the wall, heaving heavily, his face completely red from embarrassment and anger. He then glares at all of his former team members.

“Yes, Takeshi is my fucking boyfriend—you guys _happy_ now?”

Eiji starts to whine out loud and Oishi blushes awkwardly. Kawamura and Tezuka shuffle away. Fuji just snaps _another_ picture, and Inui writes some more stuff in his notebook. Momoshiro just splutters something incoherent.

When all is said and done, and everyone’s leaving to go home, Momoshiro muses on the fact that at least they got some pictures of them together, he asked Fuji to send them through mail.

Kaidoh starts to strangle him again.

 

**oOo**

“Oh come on, you can’t stay mad at me forever. It wasn’t even my fault!”

Kaidoh hisses, but says nothing else.

“And I think the pictures came out pretty good. I look dashingly handsome.”

“You mean dashingly retarded.”

“Well, that was uncalled for.”

Kaidoh plumps down next to Momoshiro on his bed. He sighs; he’s not mad. He’s just ... anxious. Or something like that. Like there’s something gnawing at his stomach and it won’t go away. The pictures Fuji sent them didn’t turn out too bad either, just that it had captured the most embarrassing moment of his life.

“I should frame this one and put it on my wall,” says Momoshiro with a grin. He’s holding the one where Kaidoh’s face is red and he’s yelling at the other guys, while Momoshiro’s gasping for breath in the background.

“Like hell you will,” he says.

“I’ll just cut out myself, and just have you, I should ask Fuji to send me the negatives so that I can get a bigger version of your face.”

Kaidoh elbows Momoshiro’s side, who counters with a punch in the arm. They briefly get involved in a tussle, but it soon tires them out and they lean against each other while breathing slowly.

“Ah man, I heard Inui-senpai got admitted to Tokyo University!”

“Yes, I was the one that told you, dumbass.” He doesn’t really want to talk about this.

“And Oishi-senpai is going to medical school—he’s really becoming a doctor.”

“Aha.”

“Eiji-senpai is ... I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing, but I know he’s stalking Oishi-senpai. Then there’s Tezuka-senpai, he’s going to America as well, the prick. Fuji-senpai is going to college, I think he wants to become a professional photographer. Kawamura-senpai is taking over his dad’s sushi place ... which reminds me; we should go eat there. I’m sure I can score some free stuff out of him.”

“Ah,” says Kaidoh, only half caring.

“And then there’s us.”

His stomach twists into a knot again. He can’t help it; he’s worried and anxious. Everyone’s moving on, everyone’s doing things with their life. What will become of him and Momoshiro? Sure he’s got another year until they graduate, but then what?

“You wanted to go pro, right?” asks Momoshiro.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m way too lazy for that,” laughs Momoshiro.

“I know, you wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“Hey!”

Kaidoh bumps his head against Momoshiro’s. He doesn’t want to leave, he doesn’t want to have a different path in life than Momoshiro. They’ve always been together since middle school, and now especially, when things are going pretty well, and everything’s fucking sunshine, he just doesn’t want to let go of it. But everyone’s doing different things, and Momoshiro isn’t planning on following him anymore.

“Well, I’m probably gonna go to college. I’m sure my mom will force me whether I want to or not.”

“You’ll probably drop out.”

Momoshiro snorts out loud. “Just because you want me to, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

Yeah, he wants it to happen. Drop out, stay with him, don’t go anywhere and leave him behind. Just stay.

Momoshiro kisses the side of his head, right underneath his bandana, and he feels a little better. Can’t they stay in high school forever?

 

**oOo**

“You ready?”

“No.”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

Kaidoh pulls onto Momoshiro’s shirt, so that he doesn’t go anywhere. He looks at him; he’s scared. He doesn’t want this to go bad, because if it does, then perhaps it really will all end between them. And they haven’t even graduated yet. Momoshiro kisses Kaidoh’s forehead, and even though this makes him look like a little kid that needs comforting, he doesn’t care, because it _is_ comforting. Momoshiro is Kaidoh’s support; he needs him by his side right now.

“I’m right here,” he says.

“I know.”

“Then let’s go.” Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh’s hand and pulls him along. If he weren’t, Kaidoh’s sure he wouldn’t have been able to walk at all.

They walk down the stairs, into Kaidoh’s living room, his mother and father sitting at the dining table, and his brother is watching tv. Kaidoh turns around to walk away, but Momoshiro shoves him into the open, bastard.

He stands next to Momoshiro, the palms of his hands sweaty and sticky, so he nervously clutches his pants to dry them off a bit. He doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know how to start. He doesn’t want them to hate him. His entire body feels like ice, frozen to the ground. Chalk stiff and frozen solid. Momoshiro gives him a slight shove with his shoulder and he’s back on earth again, unfrozen, and with a support. He opens his mouth to talk, but no words are coming out of it, his throat feels dry like he swallowed a bunch of sand.

“It’s okay,” whispers Momoshiro.

Kaidoh swallows, then gives him a small nod. “M-mom, dad, I’ve got something to say,” he says in a shaky voice.

His parents look up at him with loving smiles. This makes him even more nervous. He claws at his thighs, he’s nervous, he feels like there’s a stampede of animals running over his body, and again his mouth if filled with sand.

“I .. I ...” he says, but doesn’t quite get any further than that.

“Kaoru, what is it?” asks his mother, a little bit concerned now.

“I want to tell you ... tell you that ...” His head is spinning, he can’t make sense of his own words anymore. What is he supposed to do? How can he say this? What will happen? What will happen to him and Momoshiro? He almost lets out a girly shriek when Momoshiro grabs his sweaty and sticky hand. He curls his fingers around it and suddenly he’s not alone anymore. He swallows the sand in his throat.

“That Takeshi is my boyfriend.”

There, he said it. It’s out in the open now. His parents can hate him forever, and Momoshiro can leave him now. Fuck.

“Oh dear!” his mother says with a gasp. She holds a hand in front of her mouth.

Now he’s literally frozen; that doesn’t sound good. Not at all.

“That was supposed to be a secret?”

Momoshiro snorts out loud, then quickly coughs to cover it up. Kaidoh is slowly thawing out and now he wishes the ground would swallow him up.

Then Hazue walks by. “If it was supposed to be a secret, you guys should learn to lock the door.”

“Why you little brat,” says Momoshiro darkly and starts chasing after Hazue.

Kaidoh’s face is all scrunched up in a bad grimace. He wants to die. Die in a hole, because what the fuck—his mother and brother knew? All along? What the fuck has he been worried about then?

“I want your blessings,” he says out loud and determined. Momoshiro stops chasing Hazue and slowly creeps back to Kaidoh’s side.

“Kaoru, my boy, if you didn’t have our blessings, we would have never let Takeshi step foot in this house,” says his father.

“Thank you very much, Kaidoh-san,” says Momoshiro politely.

 _That’s it?_ That’s seriously it? That’s all it took? For the entire two years, _that’s it?_

Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh’s hand again, and he forces him to look at him. “Kaoru, breathe.”

And he does. He takes in a deep breath, and lets it out in his traditional snake hiss. Okay, that feels a bit better now. He suddenly feels drained of all his energy, all this build up energy of anxiousness he’s been holding onto for a very long time are bubbling up. They slowly leave his body, and he feels as if he hasn’t eaten in days. Momoshiro catches on quickly, and he grabs Kaidoh’s shoulder so that he won’t collapse right then and there. What would he do without his support? He wants to give Momoshiro a smile, to tell him he’s okay, but he can’t even find enough energy to do that.

“Takeshi, why don’t you take him upstairs? He looks kind of sickly. I’ll fix you up some snacks,” says Kaidoh’s mother.

“Will do. Come on, idiot, or did you forget how to walk?”

Kaidoh glares at him; no, he did not forget how to walk—nor how to hit Momoshiro. They struggle together as they walk back up the stairs. He collapses on his bed straight away, completely drained of everything and anything that he ever bottled up. Well, not completely, but most of it.

“You okay?” asks Momoshiro concerned.

Kaidoh props his head up on his pillow and stares at Momoshiro. His support, his better half, the idiot who won’t leave him alone, and the idiot who knows when to be serious and hold onto his hand.

“Yeah,” he says with a croaky voice.

Momoshiro sits down next to him on his bed, and he starts to rub Kaidoh’s back. The energy that had left him just moments ago returns to his body. With each comforting stroke Momoshiro makes, a warm liquid fills his veins. He feels better, a lot better. A lot less worried. He’s so worriless, he almost feels like crying. But that’s Momoshiro’s thing, so he settles on sighing against his pillow and closing his eyes. Momoshiro’s hands are still stroking his back, and it feels like he’s taking a very warm bath, and he never wants him to stop.

Don’t go, don’t leave, don’t ever stop. Stay, stay forever.

Kaidoh rolls over on his back and stares at Momoshiro, who looks back at him with warm eyes. He grabs his hand, and he pulls it up to his face, so that he can rub his face against the palm of his hand. Momoshiro simply smiles at the action, and cups his entire cheek. The feelings won’t stop pouring out of him, and before he knows it, Momoshiro leans forwards and kisses him.

They’ve kissed a thousand times already; in the club room, in the storage room, in the broom closet, on the streets, in the bathroom, in his bedroom, in Momoshiro’s bedroom, they’ve kissed so much. But nothing, nothing could ever compare to the feeling that’s leaking into him from Momoshiro’s lips, it fills him up, from head to toe, it’s warm and yet rather chilling. It’s a feeling that has been slowly building up inside of him, he never noticed it before, but it was there, just waiting to rear its head and make him go flying across the clouds.

Because that’s what it feels like right now; he’s soaring on a magic carpet with Momoshiro, exploring the sky, the world at the tip of their fingers, and they can do anything they want. No one can stop them, no one can prevent them from being with each other.

Kaidoh sits up straight, but he never leaves Momoshiro’s lips; they are his for now. It’s gentle, and it’s comforting, and that feeling inside of him just keeps building up. They’re not even doing anything rough or exciting, just pressing and slowly moving their lips against each other, and yet it’s the greatest feeling in the world.

Momoshiro is the greatest feeling in the world.

Everything about him, he wants it. He wants to hold it close. Kaidoh’s hands grab onto Momoshiro, everywhere he can touch he does, not leaving a spot to the imagination. Momoshiro responds to his touch as well, and he’s also holding onto Kaidoh. Gently, careful, comforting, like the touch of a feather, like a whole bunch of them. Now his arms are behind Kaidoh’s neck, and he pulls him closer, to his body, where he melts into it. Nothing else matters to him now, just Momoshiro. Momoshiro and the greatest feeling in the world.

They stop kissing, but only long enough for them to rid themselves of their shirts, and they’re back again, kissing softly, sucking, nipping. Their skin is hot to the touch, but it only strengthens the feelings inside of him, he doesn’t leave an inch of space between him and Momoshiro, chests sliding across each other, and hands running—exploring all over.

“No, wait,” says Momoshiro all of the sudden.

Kaidoh doesn’t want to wait, he doesn’t let go.

But Momoshiro pulls back completely, and he feels lonely and cold, and please come back.

Momoshiro walks over to his door, then turns the key to lock it, he hops back over to his bed. “Just so your mom gets the hint,” he says with a shrug.

Kaidoh laughs, mostly because he’s filled with jittery and confusing feelings and he’s riding on the clouds, and partly because Momoshiro is just _so_ Momoshiro. And then his lips are back, more forceful, hungrier, lovelier, and please don’t ever stop. Their lips move, like a dance, like a beautiful waltz, in tune with his beating and thumping heart. Each thump sends a shock through him, it’s like a drug because it’s making him high, and he’s hardly able to think straight. All he can think about is Momoshiro, Momoshiro, Momoshiro.

Everything is glowing to him, Momoshiro’s skin is glowing, like magic, like a fairytale, he doesn’t even really know if this is reality anymore. He kisses Momoshiro’s arm, leaving more and more kisses, everywhere he can. The expression on Momoshiro’s face is pure bliss, and his body shivers and jerks at his touch. More, he wants more. They rid each other of their pants, now only left in their shorts, and on the bed, moving in a rhythm only they can understand. His ears are ringing again, much like the first time from years ago—when everything was still new. It isn’t any more, but it feels so much better. So familiar, so high on those drugs.

Kaidoh’s body raises up, and it goes down, Momoshiro kisses his chest, his belly, it doesn’t really matter what he touches it seems, because it makes Kaidoh squirm either way, leaving him wanting for more. More of Momoshiro. His moans are like a song, one that Momoshiro composes, because each touch creates a different moan, and a different twitch, and this unbearable itch of wanting to get closer and closer.

Momoshiro tugs at Kaidoh’s boxers, and he slides them off of his hip. He raises his body so that Momoshiro can take it off entirely, and flings it somewhere behind him. Then he’s back, kissing Kaidoh, tongues now swirling and sliding in their mouths. Kaidoh moans when he feels Momoshiro press up against him; he’s completely naked, high on Momoshiro’s drug, and very, very hard. The last piece of fabric between them annoys him, so he parts from Momoshiro.

“Take it off,” he murmurs. He doesn’t want to be the only one who’s naked, he wants to see Momoshiro as well.

Momoshiro continues to kiss Kaidoh, never leaving his lips, but he fumbles around, trying to get out of his black boxers. Kaidoh half registers that those are his, but then he’s back thinking about Momoshiro again. That guy is just filling his mind, threatening to spill over if something isn’t done about it soon. Finally the last piece of clothing is gone, and they’re naked on the bed, Kaidoh underneath Momoshiro, rocking back and forth in the same rhythm still.

“Ah!” Kaidoh yelps when Momoshiro bites his neck. He winces his eyes shut, and claws at Momoshiro’s back; biting has never felt so good. They do it a lot of times, it hurts, but it feels good, especially when Momoshiro does it. He’ll like anything Momoshiro does right about now.

His teeth nibble on his sensitive neck, like he’s some sort of prey—not that Kaidoh minds. Oh no, he can nibble on him as much as he wants, it feels fucking fantastic, and it turns him on even more.

Returning the favour, Kaidoh bites Momoshiro’s neck as well, not even starting out gently.

“Shit,” wheezes out Momoshiro and his body half collapses on him.

He leaves a bunch of bitemarks that make Momoshiro freeze up, he simply concentrates on the pleasure that Kaidoh gives him. Then he kisses the bitten spots, which he knows Momoshiro likes as well. First biting, then kissing, it’s strange, but it’s how they work, how they move, how it makes them feel the best. Except everything is feeling a lot better right now, every touch is hyper sensitive, and feels ten times better than before.

Especially when Momoshiro’s hard penis shifts against his own, and they simultaneously gasp out loud.

Kaidoh is about to worm his hand in between them, to stroke him, but Momoshiro moves away from his face, down his chest, towards his hips. And then he hovers above his erect penis, and he can literally feel Momoshiro’s heavy breath hit it. He’s half high still, and half self-conscious, because they’ve never done that before. Self-conscious thoughts are pushed into oblivion when Momoshiro’s tongue licks the tip of the glans. Kaidoh digs his fingers into the mattress, and it takes a huge amount of effort to not thrust his hips upwards in response.

“Takeshi,” he says worried. He doesn’t want Momoshiro to do anything he doesn’t want to, despite it feeling really really good, and he sort of wants to push Momoshiro’s head down on it.

Momoshiro simply answers by putting his lips on the top of his penis. Kaidoh sucks in a deep and harsh breath and feels tingly and shaky. Momoshiro parts his lips, and his warm breath feels so fucking good, but his lips sliding all the way down feels even _better_. It’s extremely wet and hot, and all the muscles in his body just keep twitching.

So that’s how he ends up grabbing the back of Momoshiro’s head, his fingers running through his sticky hair, as he bobs his head up and down, slowly, like torture.

“Fshuuuu,” Kaidoh hisses. _Do it faster, damnit._

As if he knew what he was thinking, Momoshiro does. His wet lips slide all the way down, and then back up, and he sucks at the tip and Kaidoh’s rolling around, writhing and squirming and letting out gasps and moans at the same time. It’s just so wet and warm, and it’s Momoshiro, so Kaidoh knows he’s not going to last long at all. Not at all. Momoshiro’s hands are on his thigh, and he sucks some more and goes faster, until he’s pulling everything out of Kaidoh. All his muscles tighten, right as Momoshiro’s lips tighten around him, and he scratches the back of Momoshiro’s head, calling out his name, and he shudders violently as he comes into his mouth. Spasm after spasm, and his head is in the clouds, and he lets out a long drawn out hiss as he spills his seed completely.

Momoshiro pulls back, the sensation still feeling good as he does, and he gags a little bit, then spits out Kaidoh’s sperm in his hands. Kaidoh’s feeling too sticky and good to care about that right now. He can see Momoshiro rolling off of the bed and grabbing some tissues out of his drawer, but again, he’s only half paying attention, because he’s seeing stars explode in front of his eyes.

“That felt good,” he says blissfully.

“Yeah? I bet,” responds Momoshiro. He cleans his mouth, and then climbs back on Kaidoh’s bed, and kisses him.

Kaidoh kisses him back, and despite finding it rather gross that those lips were just touching his penis, Kaidoh enjoys it either way. It’s Momoshiro’s turn now, not because he feels indebted, but because he wants to make him feel good too. Make him feel so good he’ll scream out his name. But not too loud, since his entirely family is downstairs.

“Lie down,” Kaidoh says, giving a slight push against Momoshiro’s shoulder.

He obeys without complaint, and Kaidoh’s on top of him, kissing him, then biting his neck (which earns him scratches on his back), and traveling down. Now he’s at the same position Momoshiro was in not that long ago. He sees his red and hard penis sticking up straight, throbbing, and just waiting to be touched.

He uses his hands first, simply because he likes the soft skin of it, his fingers trailing it up and down.

“Nnghh,” Momoshiro lets out, trying to hold back. Kaidoh tries not to smirk; it must feel like torture after being turned on for so long.

All of his fingers wrap around his penis, and he pulls the skin up, and then down—just giving him a little bit more torture. He enjoys seeing Momoshiro squirm, he enjoys seeing Momoshiro enjoy it. After teasing Momoshiro for a few more seconds, he finally leans down and takes it into his mouth. It’s hard and soft at the same time, and it tastes very salty and sweaty, kind of musky. His lips slide over the entire penis, all the way down, until it’s at the back of his throat, and any more, and he’ll gag.

“Ah, Kaoru,” moans Momoshiro, who’s probably in 7th heaven by now.

Kaidoh lifts his head, and his lips slide up, and then down, and he continues to do this motion until Momoshiro’s being loud and moaning, and then he thrust his hips up, gagging Kaidoh by going too far, and he comes into his mouth as well. Kaidoh immediately lets go, coughing and spitting out the salty sperm that’s dripping from his mouth. He sees Momoshiro tremble and shiver, he’s probably out for now, so he grabs some of his left over tissues and spits the rest of it in there, and cleans himself up some more.

“Sorry,” says Momoshiro, he’s looking at him now, his eyes glazed over.

“It’s okay,” says Kaidoh and he wipes his mouth, his own penis, then Momoshiro’s. He’s already limp, but Momoshiro’s still only half way.

He flings the tissues away, then lies down on his bed next to Momoshiro, and cuddles up next to him. Their naked bodies stick to each other like glue, since they’re so sweaty. They’re both breathing heavily, and they feel good, a bit sticky, but good. Kaidoh puts his arm on Momoshiro’s stomach, and Momoshiro does the same. He closes his eyes and leans his head against Momoshiro’s neck, the side with bite marks all over it.

It just feels so good. Of course, the orgasm was fantastic, and he’s probably going to be begging for some more blowjobs now, but this, just holding each other after doing something like that, it’s ... it’s ... he doesn’t quite know how to explain. It’s just a very comfortable state, it’s stable and it’s strong, and he likes the cuddling. There’s just no pretence between them like this, just Kaidoh and Momoshiro. Two gay guys who just had sex, cuddling.

“Takeshi?” he calls out.

He can hear Momoshiro’s heavy breathing, and he opens his eyes to look at him. It seems he’s asleep. Well, he does feel rather sleepy too, since it’s so comfortable, and being with Momoshiro made him sleepy too. Just being with Momoshiro period makes everything feel better. He hugs Momoshiro’s body closer; he doesn’t ever want to let go. No, Momoshiro’s is his, his forever, he ... he ...

“I love you.”

Yeah. That about sums it up alright.

Kaidoh falls asleep soon afterwards, thinking of nothing but the comfortable state he was in, and that he’s finally accepted that special part of him and Momoshiro.

When he wakes up, he’s alone. Naked on his bed. He looks around; it’s morning, and Momoshiro is not in his room. His clothes are gone too. That comfortable feeling of yesterday is immediately yanked out of his body as the panic settles in. Where’s Momoshiro? Did he leave? Why? Why’d he leave without saying anything? Then he sees the note on his night stand, along with his black boxers, neatly folded. The note has got Momoshiro’s hand writing on it. He quickly picks it up.

_Gone to America. Bye, Kaoru-chan._

Kaidoh blinks at it, then reads it again, and he thinks it’s a joke. Until he calls Momoshiro’s mother and she tells him Momoshiro took the train towards Osaka just hours ago, saying something about finding an airport.

_Seriously?_

Without even thinking about it, Kaidoh chases after Momoshiro, taking the first train he gets and goes to Osaka.

 

**oOo**

“What the _fuck_ were you thinking?”

Momoshiro is sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, looking up with a goofy grin at Kaidoh. They’re in the middle of fucking nowhere. “You found me,” he says.

“Yes, after scourging the city, shoving your stupid picture in people’s faces, yes I fucking found you after three hours.”

“Is it the picture in which I look dashingly handsome?”

“Takeshi,” Kaidoh growls, he doesn’t have the patience for games anymore. “Explain yourself now, or I won’t be able to control myself and you _will_ get another broken nose.”

“Geez, calm down. No need to be so angry.”

Kaidoh splutters and hisses and angrily stomps over to Momoshiro, who throws his hands above his head to protect himself.

“Okay, okay! I was running off to go to America.”

“You’re in _Osaka_.”

“Okay, I didn’t get that far,” he grumbles.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t? Or I was? I don’t know. I just had to clear my mind a little bit, and test something out.”

“Test what out?”

“I heard you, you know.”

“Heard what?”

“I wasn’t asleep. Well, okay, I was half asleep, but it’s not like you were whispering it. I heard it loud and clear.”

“Oh ...”

“And I sort of ... freaked.”

“Understatement of the year.”

“Shut up. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, you know? About us, about you, and especially what would happen if your parents wouldn’t accept us.”

“Ah.”

“And then I started thinking; well even if they do, that doesn’t mean much. Everyone’s going off to college, and I will too, and you’ll go do your stupid pro thing in a year, and we’ll be separated. What would happen then? Do we part and go different ways? Well, I don’t, I don’t want to be apart, so I wanted to see what it would be like if I was away from you, and I came here.”

“And?”

“Oh it was awful, I used up all my money getting here, and then I wandered around trying to find the meaning of life and everything, and then I got really hungry, but I’m broke and couldn’t buy anything, and I think I might have dug through someone’s trash to find food. But I could have been hallucinating that part.”

“No you idiot, what’s it like being away from me?”

“Oh. Yeah. That.” _Beat._ “It sucks.”

“You seriously had to go to Osaka to figure that out?”

“Okay, I admit it wasn’t the greatest idea ...”

“Again, understatement of the fucking year.”

“Shut up, asshole. It’s all because of you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Why’d you have to go and mess up my head.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly, you don’t even try. It’s like you’re flaunting it, really.” He raises his voice. “Look at me, I’m Kaoru-chan and I won’t stop bugging you. I’ll dig myself deep inside of you and won’t let go. Fuck.”

“That’s creepy.”

“I know.”

“Did you seriously dig through some trash?”

“I don’t know, I was half thinking about hamburgers, and half thinking about sucking you off.”

“...”

“Oh don’t give me that look, we both know what we did last night.”

“Takeshi.”

“And wow, it’s getting me hard already just thinking about it. But you know, it’s all your fault. Why’d you have to go and say something like that. While I’m sleeping no less!”

“Takeshi.”

“Couldn’t you at least wait till I was awake? It doesn’t matter I was actually awake at that time, what matters is that you were being sneaky and said it without me being able to say anything back."

“Takeshi ...”

“Of course you had to say it first. Bastard.”

“I’m talking to a wall.”

“Yes you are, bastard, that’s what you get for saying it first.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you too—well, maybe later?”

“Why don’t you stop day dreaming for a second, and just give me a reply already.”

“Why? I want to hear you saying you’re sorry first.”

“For _what?_ ”

“For saying it while I’m asleep!”

“What’s wrong with that!”

“Everything! Bastard! Making me feel all lightheaded and jumpy, and I couldn’t do anything about it because I was supposed to be asleep!”

“You could have said something!”

“No, that would have made me look stupid!”

“You _are_ fucking stupid, you moron.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, asshole!”

“Stop avoiding it!”

“Fuck you!”

“Fshuuuu.”

“Stop hissing.”

“Stop being a moron.”

“Okay fine! I’ll say it! I’ll fucking say it!”

“Okay, go.”

“Can you turn around first? I don’t like that look on your face.”

“This is just how I look.”

“Exactly, you’re giving me the creeps.”

“Say it!”

“Argh! For two years, two years!”

“Three.”

“Has it been three?”

“Two and a half, probably.”

“Okay ... For two and a half years! I’ve been trying for two and a half year not to say anything at all. But fine, here you go: I love you! There, I said it! I fucking love you. Completely and utterly in love with you! I’ve been trying so hard to never say that out loud, or to even acknowledge it ... but there you have it. I’m gonna go jump off of a bridge now, ‘kay.”

“You’re such a moron.”

“Yeah but, hey, you love this moron.”

“Yes I do.”

“... Okay, I didn’t expect you to agree with it so easily. That sort of hurt. Asshole. Wait—did I hear that right? Do you really love me?”

“Yes ...”

“Oh okay, I was just making sure I’m not hallucinating or something. Yeah, hehe, because that would be one hell of a prank if it were. Fuck.”

“Let’s go back home, stupid.”

“Okay. Hey, do you love me?”

“I would very much love to punch you right now.”

“Yeah but, you love me right?”

“Takeshi.”

“Wahh, don’t hit me, don’t hit me!”

“I love you. Fshuuuu.”

“Oh okay. Just making sure. Hey, can you pinch me? OWW! I SAID **PINCH** , NOT PUNCH!”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“Prick.”

“Let’s go home already.”

“Okay. Hey Kaoru.”

“What? I’m not going to hold your hand.”

“I didn’t even say anything!”

“Good.”

“Not like I wanted to.”

“Good.”

As if it’s magic, their fingers slip together—they don’t even need to look.

The magic is quickly broken when Kaidoh feels his fingers touch a cluster of Ketchup between Momoshiro’s fingers. He _wasn’t_ hallucinating.


	5. Epilogue

It was a crushing defeat. Kaidoh lost by 6-2, and Momoshiro was there to see it all. It’s not that Kaidoh did bad, no Kaidoh was pretty damn awesome (he might just be a _little_ biased), it’s just that the other pro tennis player completely wiped the floor with him. Momoshiro sneaks into the locker rooms to meet up with him after his match.

“Hey,” calls Momoshiro out to him. Kaidoh’s sitting on the bench, untying his shoes.

He grunts in response and doesn’t say anything. Momoshiro sits down next to him and puts his arm over his shoulder. “Watching that was painful.”

Kaidoh pushes his arm away. “Piss off.” He continues to take off his shoes.

“You did great though,” he pipes in.

Kaidoh gets up and angrily takes off his shorts. “I lost, how the fuck was that even anywhere near ‘great’?”

“You did great. He just did _better._ Come on, loads of pros lose their first matches.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better?” He sits down again, this time with his shirt off.

Momoshiro puts his arm around Kaidoh again and leans his head against his. “Is it working?”

“No.”

“You can punch me if you want.”

“That’s stupid. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah but, I seem to recall you saying my face just looks so ‘punchable’ to you.”

Kaidoh half snorts and half chuckles. “That was years ago.”

“Come on, put your clothes on, otherwise I might just do you right here.”

Kaidoh leans in, and gives Momoshiro a kiss on the cheek, then gets up and finishes getting dressed. Heh, Momoshiro likes it when Kaidoh’s being just the tiniest bit affectionate. Then he sighs and watches him quietly; he wants to cheer him up for losing his first professional match, but doesn’t really know how to, other than letting him punch him or something. Or maybe he’ll want a back-alley hand job, though his angry face doesn’t seem to be in the mood for that either.

Either way, Kaidoh losing came at a pretty bad time, Momoshiro had wanted to surprise him with some good news after he’d won. Now ... now it seems kind of insensitive.

“Wanna go get some ice cream?” he asks.

Kaidoh grabs his bag and slings it across his shoulder. “Sure.”

They exit the building, and the streets are deserted and lonely, even though it’s actually a really nice day. They walk next to each other, and Momoshiro stares at Kaidoh’s hand a few times. Kaidoh’s not the hand holding type, well, not in public at least, but Momoshiro sort of is. But he refrains, he knows Kaidoh is bummed out at losing his first match. The ice cream parlor is a bit further than he thought, and Momoshiro catches himself bumping hands against Kaidoh’s a few times, just because. When they’re there, Momoshiro is the one who pays for the both of them, he can’t let Kaidoh pay when he’s just lost, that’s just rude.

Even though he’s sort of poor, after spending a lot of cash recently.

They sit in the corner, the walls are decorated in pinks and whites, it’s actually sort of girly. The corner is cramped and the table is tiny, so their thighs are pressed up against each other, not that he minds that. Momoshiro licks the tip of his ice cream, and tastes the sweet taste of vanilla and strawberry.

“When’s your next match?” he asks.

Kaidoh stares at his ice cream as if he’s not hungry. “In another two days.”

“Oh, I’ve got classes then,” says Momoshiro.

“I know. It’s in the morning. You won’t be able to be there.”

Momoshiro frowns and is slightly hurt; he wants to be. Anything to support Kaidoh, screw college classes if it means it interferes with that. “I’ll just skip morning classes then,” he says with a shrug.

“Don’t do that,” Kaidoh replies. He then starts licking his ice cream too. Good, his mood is getting a bit better now.

“Can’t stop me.” He takes a huge chunk of vanilla strawberry and lets it melt on his tongue.

“Idiot.” Kaidoh’s leg brushes up against him, and Momoshiro suppresses a grin.

Momoshiro stares at his ice cream for a bit; maybe now’s a good time to tell him, since he’s feeling a bit better. “Hey, Kaoru,” he says.

“Hmm?”

“I uhh ...”

“What, did you do something stupid again?”

Momoshiro scoffs. “Is that really the first thing you expect of me?”

“Yes.”

Momoshiro hits Kaidoh’s arm, but it’s light and not mean spirited at all. “Ass.”

Kaidoh works faster on his ice cream, and licks a trail of free-flowing ice cream down his cone, all the way up. Momoshiro feels jealous.

“I sort of made a down payment on an apartment. It’s not too far from my college, but a little bit further from my home.”

Kaidoh stops licking his ice cream, and stares at him. They hold each other’s gaze for a few seconds, and Momoshiro’s stomach tightens up. Then he looks down at his ice cream again. “You moving out?”

“Yeah. Been wanting to ever since I started college.”

“How are you paying for it?”

“Well, my dad is helping me out for now. But I’ll get a part-time job to pay for the rent myself.”

Kaidoh makes a soft noise that sounds like a snort. “You can’t even feed yourself, let alone live by yourself. What are you going to do about food, and washing your clothes?”

Momoshiro bites his lips and glares at Kaidoh. “I’m not _completely_ incompetent, you know.”

“You’re an overgrown baby.”

Momoshiro steps on Kaidoh’s foot under the table, which makes his knee crash against it, and his ice cream almost topples over onto his shirt. “Asshole.”

“Dumbass.”

“Kaoru, live with me.”

It’s Kaidoh’s ice cream that topples over, and spills onto his shirt. “Fuck!” he hisses out and quickly takes a bunch of napkins to wipe it off. Momoshiro stays put, shifting on his spot uncomfortably. Kaidoh gets most of it off, but now his sleeveless black shirt has a nice white stain on it. Heh, who’s incompetent now? He sits back down again, and takes a deep breath, and he punches Momoshiro’s arm.

“Idiot. Why didn’t you tell me you were looking at apartments? If you’re planning on living with me, you could have at least told me before actually getting one.”

Momoshiro grins, and his leg brushes up against Kaidoh’s again. “Where’s the fun in that? I sort of wanted to surprise you with it, after you won your first match but ...”

“Oh.”

“Yeah ...”

“Once I start winning matches, I can pay for the rent.”

“So that’s a yes then?”

“You’re such a moron, Takeshi.”

Momoshiro looks at him, faking hurt.

“Only if you start to buy your own boxer shorts.”

Momoshiro laughs out loud, remembering how many times he’s stolen Kaidoh’s underwear and used it himself. He smiles at Kaidoh, who’s also smiling back at him.

“Hey, you got somethin’ on your face,” says Momoshiro.

“Huh, where?”

Momoshiro kisses him, and licks up the ice cream that was sitting on his lips the whole time. He pulls away, smiling still. Yeah, he’s gonna live with Kaidoh now. Just him and the person he loves most.

When Momoshiro walks Kaidoh back home, he lets him hold his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end. Thanks for reading my first long MomoKai story! There's more MomoKai to be found under my name.


End file.
